House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that he trusts President Trump’s timeline of the release of a coronavirus vaccine over the timeline given by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield.
“We’re going to have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and listen to the preparation of what we’ve been able to do with Operation Warp Speed to be able to deliver it,” the California Republican said during a press conference on Thursday. “When that time comes, if I just take the words of the CDC and the president, the president’s right.”
“I think one of those two individuals had more information than the other, and that was the president,” McCarthy added.
Earlier in the week, Redfield testified to Congress that a coronavirus vaccine would likely not be ready until “the second or third quarter of 2021.”
The comment appeared to be at odds with President Trump’s expressed belief that the vaccine could be available sometime this year.
“I think he got the message confused,” Trump said. He added that “under no circumstance will it be as late as the doctor said” and that the doctor “made a mistake.”
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday that the administration is preparing to distribute 100 million vaccine doses if next month’s clinical trials yield positive results.
