As two pharmaceutical companies have announced that their COVID-19 vaccine trials have shown efficacy, President Donald Trump has sought to claim for the speed with which they were developed.
In a tweet on Monday, Trump said, “Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great ‘historians’, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!”
Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
While Trump claimed credit, Operation War Speed’s — the program behind the push to develop a vaccine quickly — head Dr. Moncef Slaoui said the president has had little involvement in the push to develop a vaccine.
During an interview on MSNBC on Monday, Slaoui said, “The president has never been very actively involved.”
“As I’ve said many times, we’ve had no interference one way or the other,” he stressed, adding, “We have informed him from time-to-time.”
Additionally, he said that one of his main goals in the push to develop a vaccine was to “minimize to anything… any kind of political interference.”
Earlier this year, amid concerns that Trump would try to push for a vaccine approval for political purposes, Slaoui vowed to “immediately resign” if he saw “undue interference in this process.
On Monday, Moderna Inc. announced its vaccine trial was 94.% effective in preventing the coronavirus. That announcement comes a week after Pfizer revealed that its vaccine trial was 90% effective in preventing the virus.
