President Donald Trump on Monday said he would be talking about a vaccine or a cure for the coronavirus with pharmaceutical executives and defended holding campaign rallies amid concerns about an outbreak of the disease.
‘We’re talking about a vaccine, maybe even a cure,’ the president said ahead of his meeting later Monday.
‘We’ve asked them to accelerate whatever they’re doing in terms of vaccine,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with the president of Colombia.
President Donald Trump – during a meeting Colombian President Ivan Duque in the Oval Office – said he would be talking about a vaccine or a cure for the coronavirus with pharmaceutical executives
President Trump also defended holding campaign rallies during fears of an outbreak; he’ll hold one in Charlotte Monday night and held one in Charleston (pictured) on Friday
President Trump, who is holding a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday evening, also defended holding a gathering of thousands amid concerns about the spreading of the disease, saying it was ‘safe.’
Coronavirus is spread via people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) or through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump pointed out the Democratic presidential candidates are also campaigning.
‘They’re all having rallies. That’s what they’re doing. They’re campaigning,’ he said.
‘I think it’s very safe,’ he said.
Researchers are working on a cure for the disease but that process could take into the next year. First it would have to be tested on animals and then on humans before it would released to the wider public.
The White House is working to contain public panic on the issue but also making sure people are taking adequate measures to safeguard against its spread.
The president has had the outbreak on his mind Monday, tweeting about the issue several times, claiming progress was being made on a vaccine and cure.
He also touted the restrictions placed on those traveling from China in early February as a move that ‘saved many lives’ and he complained Democrats were too busy trying to impeach him at the time to do anything about the disease.
The president – along with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the coronavirus task force – are scheduled to meet with pharmaceutical executives at the White House Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. EST for a closed-press briefing.
‘I am meeting with the major pharmaceutical companies today at the White House about progress on a vaccine and cure. Progress being made!,’ Trump tweeted.
President Donald Trump claimed progress being made on a vaccine and cure for the coronavirus
Pence is scheduled to brief the public from the White House press room at 5 p.m. ET after Trump leaves the White House for a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Trump also touted a February 2 travel restriction his administration put into place that required U.S. citizens who had traveled in China within 14 days to be directed to one of eight airports designated for screening.
‘I was criticized by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommended. Saved many lives. Dems were working the Impeachment Hoax. They didn’t have a clue! Now they are fear mongering. Be calm & vigilant!,’ the president tweeted.
The Senate voted to acquit Trump of the two impeachment charges on February 5.
The president’s words of reassurance about a vaccine came after the second death in the U.S. was confirmed and the worldwide death toll has passed 3,000.
A man in his 70s died Sunday at the same Seattle area hospital where the first person died. And at least 77 patients in the U.S. have now been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The coronavirus has infected more than 89,000 people and spread to over 60 countries since it first emerged in China late last year.
President Trump has been complaining that Democrats are blaming him for the spread of the disease.
He’s been defending his administration’s response to the outbreak as the stock market has plummeted amid fears of a widespread epidemic.
As part of the administration’s efforts to calm fears, the U.S. will start screening travelers for coronavirus and ramp up production of masks and test kits.
Trump said on Sunday that travelers to the United States from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and upon arrival, without specifying which countries.
Delta Air Lines on Sunday said it is suspending until May flights to Milan in northern Italy where most of that country’s coronavirus cases have been reported. Flights will continue to Rome. American Airlines Group Inc announced a similar move late on Saturday.
The United States has imposed limits on travelers who have visited Iran and recommended against travel to hard-hit areas of Italy and South Korea.
Trump said on Saturday that the United States was also considering shutting the country’s southern border with Mexico to control the spread of the virus, adding, ‘We hope we won’t have to do that.’
As the global panic over Coronavirus continues, water, paper towels, gasoline and Clorox disinfecting wipes and products were top of most customers shopping lists at the Costco Wholesale market in Burbank, California
At the terminal that serves planes bound for China, people wear medical masks out of concern over the Coronavirus at John F. Kennedy Airport
Plane passengers wear surgical masks at LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B in Queens, New York as the first confirmed coronavirus case in New York State is reported
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said more than 3,600 people already have been tested for coronavirus and the capability exists to test 75,000 people. He forecast a ‘radical expansion of that’ in the coming weeks.
The United States has 75,000 test kits for coronavirus and will expand that number ‘radically’ in coming weeks, Azar told ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday.
He also said work was happening on a vaccine.
‘We are actively working on a vaccine. We are actively working on therapeutics, the diagnostic is out in the field. And we’re going to work to protect the American people with every tool that we’ve got,’ he said.
Pence, whom Trump appointed last week to run the White House’s coronavirus response, said Americans should brace for more cases, but that the ‘vast majority’ of those who contracted the disease would recover.
‘Other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average American, the risk does remain low. We’re ready,’ Pence told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’.