President Donald Trump said on Friday he expects to have available enough doses of a coronavirus vaccine for every American by April. "Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April," Trump told a news conference. He said distribution of a vaccine will begin within 24 hours of it being approved by federal health regulators. "In a short time we'll have a safe and effective vaccine and we'll defeat the virus," Trump said. He has previously said a vaccine could be approved in October, an ambitious timeline that some experts have said is unlikely to be met. Trump's assertion came just hours after the federal public health agency reversed testing guidance imposed by the president's allies. Trump and his allies have repeatedly clashed with public health officials over how to tackle coronavirus, and on Friday the president insisted that he often knows more about such issues than experts such as Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While he agreed with Dr. Redfield's assessment that a vaccine will be widely available some time between April and September, he told a White House press conference he also thought it could be much earlier than that. "We will have manufactured at least 100m vaccine doses before the end of the year," Trump said. "Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect enough vaccines for every American by April." Asked whether he believed he knew more about such matters than experts such as Dr. Redfield, Mr Trump replied: "In many cases I do." — Agencies
