WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump has rejected the professional scientific conclusions of his own government about the prospects for a widely available coronavirus vaccine and the effectiveness of masks in curbing the spread of the virus as the death toll in the United States from the disease nears 200,000.
In a remarkable display even for him, Mr Trump on Wednesday publicly slapped down Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and promised that a vaccine could be available in weeks and go "immediately" to the general public, while diminishing the usefulness of masks despite evidence to the contrary.
The President's comments put him at odds with the CDC, the world's premier public health agency, over the course of a pandemic that he keeps insisting is "rounding the corner" to an end.
Mr Trump lashed out just hours after Dr Redfield told a Senate committee that a vaccine would not be widely available until the middle of next year and that masks were so vital in fighting Covid-19 that they may be even more important than a vaccine.
"If you are asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of the vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we are probably looking at third - late second quarter, third quarter 2021," Dr Redfield told the senators.
Mr Trump then told reporters: "I think he made a mistake when he said that. It's just incorrect information."
A vaccine would go "to the general public immediately", he insisted, and "under no circumstance will it be as late as the doctor said".
As for Dr Redfield's conclusion that masks may be more useful than a vaccine, Mr Trump said "he made a mistake" and a "vaccine is much more effective than the masks".
The sharply divergent messages further undercut any effort to forge a coherent response to the virus that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called the "No. 1 global security threat in our world today".
With Mr Trump saying one thing and his health advisers saying another, many Americans have been left to figure out on their own whom to believe, with past polls showing that they have more faith in the experts than their President.
The public scolding of Dr Redfield was only the latest but perhaps the starkest instance of the President rejecting not just policy advice of his public health officials but the facts and information that they provided.
Public health officials are in strong agreement about the value of masks even as Mr Trump generally refuses to wear one, mocks his opponent for doing so and twice in the past two days questioned their utility based on the advice of restaurant waiters.
Likewise, health officials have said that it will be many months before a vaccine can be distributed to the population at large, allowing life to begin returning to a semblance of normal, even as Mr Trump has promised to approve one in time for the general election on Nov 3.
By Mr Trump's own account, he personally called Dr Redfield after Wednesday's hearing to challenge his testimony, renewing questions about pressure on scientists who are supposed to be isolated from partisan politics.
But with the election looming, Mr Trump is intent on convincing the public that the worst is behind the country. He has repeatedly expressed no regret about his handling of the threat, even with the death toll mounting.
"We did a great job except, public relations-wise, my people got outplayed," he told Ms Greta Van Susteren of Gray Television on Wednesday.
Former vice-president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said that Mr Trump's undisguised fixation on the election calendar in declaring when a vaccine will be available has damaged his own credibility.
"So let me be clear. I trust vaccines. I trust the scientists, but I don't trust Donald Trump," said Mr Biden. "And at this moment, the American people can't either."
After the President's public dressing down, Dr Redfield tried to smooth over the rift by recalibrating his own answers from earlier in the day. "I 100 per cent believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a Covid-19 vaccine," he said in a written statement.
"A Covid-19 vaccine is the thing that will get Americans back to normal everyday life. The best defence we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds."
NYTIMES
