Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has raised questions regarding his opponent Donald Trump's COVID-19 vaccine claims, saying he trusts scientists on a potential vaccine but doesn't believe what the president says. He also slammed the president for the questioning wearing a mask and said he'd consider passing an executive order to mandate them.
When it comes to producing an effective and safe coronavirus vaccine, Biden says the scientists are more trustworthy as compared to Trump. During his visit to Delaware on Wednesday, the former vice president was taking questions from reporters, after having a coronavirus pandemic briefing with his team of health experts.
Biden said the process of developing and distributing an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine should not be affected by political considerations. He accused Trump of "feckless inaction" in handling the outbreak and slammed him for undercutting the use of masks, which he touted as the most effective and easiest means people have of restricting the spread of coronavirus, Fox News reported.
Biden's remarks came hours after the Trump administration announced plans for the final rollout of a coronavirus vaccine for people across the United States. The former veep noted that scientific breakthroughs do not care about calendars any more than the virus does, adding that they do not adhere to election cycles either.
He went on to suggest that the approval and distribution of the vaccine should never be affected by political considerations. The COVID-19 vaccine, Biden said, should be determined only by safety and science.
With Election Day just around the corner, Trump realizes that a vaccine for the deadly virus could considerably boost his re-election chance, particularly because he has been accused of downplaying the pandemic in the initial stage. Keeping in line with that, he has repeatedly hinted that a vaccine could be made available to the public by the end of the year, probably even before Nov. 3, while his own top health experts aren't so optimistic about its availability before the Election Day.
In Aug., when Trump was asked if he was confident that a vaccine would be available by Election Day, he replied saying, "I’m optimistic that it will be around that date." He was also asked if a vaccine is made available by the Nov. election, would it boost his chances of winning the election, and Trump replied saying it wouldn't hurt and insisted that he is not doing it for the election, but because he wants to save a lot of lives.