Amid Campaign Jabs Over Vaccine, Senate To Hold Hearing On Treatment Development

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President Trump takes questions during a Labor Day press conference.

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The president has in the past given mixed-messaging on his views on the efficacy of face masks, which research has shown to be highly effective in limiting the spread of the coronaviurs, and has previously promoted dangerous, untested treatments for the illness, including suggesting that injecting commercial cleaning agents could fend off the virus.

Sen. Harris, in an interview this week, denied that she was suspicious of the vaccine because of political reasons, saying that she would trust a vaccine developed under the Trump administration «if the public health professionals and the scientists told us that we could trust it.»

Seizing on the Biden/Harris ticket’s wariness of a rushed vaccine, the Trump campaign in a Sunday statement accused the pair of «fear mongering» and promoting «anti-vax conspiracy theories.»

«A coronavirus vaccine is a key part of returning America to normal and making our economy great again, and that’s why President Trump is working hard to deliver a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine for the American people as soon as possible,» the Trump campaign said.

«Biden and Harris are saying this for political reasons, knowing full well their irresponsible rhetoric could lead to more dead Americans. They don’t seem to care that they are contradicting the scientists and top public health officials.»

The race to produce a vaccine against the virus, dubbed Operation Warp Speed by the president, is part of the administration’s response to the unprecedented global pandemic. Since March, U.S. operations have been severely stunted through hundreds of thousands of deaths across the globe, a clogged national healthcare system and the shuttering of thousands of small businesses.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidance for states to be prepared to distribute a vaccine to high-risk groups by as soon as late-October, Trump’s own advisers have warned that the likelihood of a safe, effective vaccine within just a few weeks is «extremely unlikely.»

The development for an effective vaccine against the coronavirus by even the end of the year would mark a watershed moment in medicine, as vaccines typically take several years, if not decades, to succeed.