President Trump said the United States would work with China if it were to successfully create a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The president, speaking independently from his team of medical experts, held the first White House coronavirus briefing in recent weeks on Tuesday. During the briefing, he repeatedly labeled the COVID-19 virus the “China virus,” but said the effort to get people in the U.S. a preventative inoculation is global when asked about Chinese vaccine production.
“Yesterday, a study by a Chinese company showed some promising results for its coronavirus vaccine candidate. If China were first in developing the vaccine, or even if it weren’t, would the administration be willing to work with China to bring a successful Chinese vaccine to the U.S.?” Trump was asked.
“Yeah, we’re willing to work with anybody that’s going to get us a good result,” the president responded before extolling the U.S. effort to develop a vaccine. “We are very close to the vaccine. I think we’re going to have some very good results. We are already in testing. Nobody thought that would be possible.”
The remarks come the same day that the Justice Department accused two Chinese hackers, allegedly assisted by Beijing, of working to steal coronavirus research from the U.S. and around the world.
Trump and others in the administration have blasted China over its early response to the coronavirus pandemic and have accused the country of downplaying the severity of the respiratory illness at the start of the health crisis.
Worldwide, there have been 14.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and at least 611,000 deaths since the virus first emerged late last year in central China.
