Trump says US to have coronavirus vaccine by end of year

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.

"We are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year," Trump said in a Fox News "town hall" show broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

He also said he would urge the reopening of schools and universities in September, saying "I want them to go back."

The vaccine prediction moves up the timeline that has been discussed as the United States and other countries race to be the first to bring out a way to prevent COVID-19.

Trump insisted he would be happy for another country to beat US researchers to the medicine, saying "if it's another country I'll take my hat off."

"I don't care, I just want to get a vaccine that works."

Asked about risks during human trials in a research process that is going unusually quickly, Trump said "they're volunteers. They know what they're getting into."

Trump appeared to acknowledge that he was getting ahead of his own advisors on the prediction for the vaccine.

"The doctors would say 'well, you shouldn't say that.' I'll say what I think," he said.