United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed a willingness to cooperate with China or other nations to help speed up the development and production of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to America, despite growing frictions between the two sides.
When asked if the administration would work with China on a coronavirus drug for the U.S., whether China is the first country to produce one or not, the President stated they are willing to work with anybody "that's going to get us good results," Live Mint quoted Trump as saying in its report.
Following a three-month break from his daily crisis briefings, Trump was back on the podium Tuesday and kept it all to himself without the health experts who were regular fixtures of his recent events but he kept himself close to scripted remarks prepared by his staff.
Trump pointed out that advances have been made in the U.S. with regards to treatments and development for potential drugs for COVID-19. "We are doing very well with coronavirus vaccine and therapeutics development," NDTV quoted him as saying in its report.
The president also disclosed a potential drug is going to arrive much earlier than estimated and become available immediately as the U.S. military will help in its distribution.
Trump's remarks came a day after scientists said a vaccine against the disease is being developed by the CanSino Biologics Inc of China, and the country's military research agency appeared to be safe and generated immune reactions in most participants in a closely-monitored mid-phase trial.
The CanSino vaccine candidate is among a handful of potential drugs that have shown some promise in early human clinical trials. Other potential drugs that are gearing up for such tests include vaccines from U.S.-headquartered Moderna Inc and Germany's BioNTech SE, in tandem with American biotech giant, Pfizer Inc.
Results from a consolidated early/mid-phase clinical studies of a drug candidate being developed by scientists at the University of Oxford and British-Swedish group AstraZeneca was also released on Monday.
The novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China last December. Washington has blamed China for initially denying the magnitude to which the disease spreads.
Trump argued that the influence of China in the World Health Organization has caused the outbreak in Wuhan to turn into a pandemic when the disease would have been contained within the country.
