Donald Trump Accuses FDA, Pfizer Of Preventing His ‘Vaccine Win’

Washington: The outgoing US President Donald Trump on Monday accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pfizer of keeping back the COVID-19 vaccine announcement before Presidential elections to prevent him from getting a “vaccine win”, news agency PTI reported.

Trump tweeted, US FDA “and the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election, so instead it came out five days later – As I’ve said all along!”

Pharma company Pfizer had earlier in the day apprised that its vaccine candidate has been found, as per preliminary estimates, 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in volunteers with no prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

“If Joe Biden were President, you wouldn’t have the Vaccine for another four years, nor would the @US_FDA have ever approved it so quickly. The bureaucracy would have destroyed millions of lives!” Trump said on Twitter.

He added, “As I have long said, @Pfizer and the others would only announce a Vaccine after the Election, because they didn’t have the courage to do it before. Likewise, the @US_FDA should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but for saving lives!”

Reacting to Pfizer’s announcement, President-elect Joe Biden had said, “I congratulate the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope. At the same time, it is also important to understand that the end of the battle against COVID-19 is still months away.”