[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] On the 9th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Twitter that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine efficacy was announced after the presidential election for "political reasons."
On that day, President Trump tweeted, "As I have said before, Pfizer and others announced the vaccine after the election," adding, "because they did not have the courage to do so earlier."
He also emphasized, "Similarly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should have announced it earlier," and added, "Not for political reasons, but to save lives!"
For President Trump, who was seeking re-election in this election, the release of a COVID vaccine before the election was considered a decisive factor.
Earlier, Pfizer had announced interim results from its Phase 3 clinical trial showing over 90% efficacy. This announcement came six days after the election day and two days after Democratic candidate Joe Biden declared victory.
Immediately after the Pfizer news, President Trump welcomed it by saying, "The vaccine is coming soon," and "Very great news," but his tweet a few hours later was completely different.
In particular, President Trump wrote, "If Joe Biden had been president, the vaccine would not have come out for the next four years, and the FDA would not have approved it this quickly."
He also claimed, "Millions of lives would have been lost due to bureaucracy."
He added, "The FDA and the Democrats did not want me to achieve vaccine success before the election, so it came out five days later," and concluded, "Just as I have said for a long time!"
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