U.S. officials on Tuesday said that a vaccine for the coronavirus is at least a year away after President Donald Trump said it would be ready soon.
At a event in New Delhi, Trump said that he had asked Congress for $2.5 billion to fight the coronavirus and to find a vaccine.
“Now they have studied it, they know very much. In fact, we are very close to a vaccine,” he said.
Trump also predicted that the virus is "a problem that’s going to go away."
But just hours later, U.S. officials reportedly told senators that a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to develop.
“The vaccine for the coronavirus is moving more rapidly than any vaccine we have already tried to approve - but it will take a year or 18 months," Sen. Lamar Alexander told CNN's Manu Raju. "The way to stop [an outbreak] is quarantine and monitoring.”
Shortly after Trump downplayed the severity of the Coronavirus and said that the spread of the virus was under cont… https://t.co/HXlf8DWeqm— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju)1582643837.0
Asked if the virus is under control in the US, as Trump said, Manchin said: “I did not hear that in our briefing -… https://t.co/1jXnl6RH0V— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju)1582643838.0
Lamar Alexander said: “The vaccine for the Coronavirus is moving more rapidly than any vaccine we have already trie… https://t.co/AgfrvMMH34— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju)1582643838.0
There were 40 senators present for the all-senators briefing, Alexander said Senators also said there was concern… https://t.co/C2Xs70nujF— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju)1582643839.0
