Trump contradicts top health officials with vaccine timeline, malaria drug claims

US President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020 and returned to touting an unproven treatment for the disease — on both fronts contradicting his own health officials as well as companies developing and testing potential vaccines.

“We think we'll have a vaccine by the end of this year and we're pushing very hard,” he said at a Fox News town hall at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. “We're building supply lines, we even have the final vaccine.”

He added that several pharmaceutical companies are “close” to developing the vaccine, naming Johnson & Johnson in particular, Politico reported.

All vaccines currently in development are still in the early phases of clinical trials, and Johnson & Johnson has said the soonest its first batch will be available is in 2021. The company has not yet begun human trials, and doesn’t expect to do so until September of this year.

Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, however, say they have the potential to supply millions of doses by the end of 2020 if their vaccine candidate shows promising results in trials.

Vaccines often take several years to develop, and for some infectious diseases, including HIV and Ebola, they remain elusive.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said it’s “within the realm of possibility” to have a vaccine widely available by January, but only if drug companies are willing to assume the risk of beginning to ramp up production of the vaccine before it is fully tested and approved.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told Fox News on Sunday morning that "on paper it's possible" to have a vaccine available in January but "whether we can execute and execute around the globe" is still in question.

Trump on Sunday evening said he wasn't concerned about which country develops a vaccine first. "I just want to get a vaccine that works. I really don't care. If it's another country, I'll take my hat off to them," he said.