Trump pledges a Covid-19 vaccine by end of 2020 — without acknowledging the scientific uncertainty

A Covid-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year “or maybe even sooner,” President Trump said during his acceptance speech in front of a largely maskless crowd on the White House’s South Lawn last night. He repeated that claim — the most concrete one yet about the timeline of a Covid-19 vaccine — later into a 70-minute speech, saying, “We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together, we will crush the virus.” Trump also touted the FDA’s recent emergency approval of convalescent plasma therapy, saying the treatment “will save thousands and thousands of lives,” though there is no clear data to support this claim. Other health care topics that garnered mentions: His executive orders last month to reduce prescription drug costs, his signing of Right to Try back in 2018, and the misleading claim that Democrats support “extreme late-term abortions.”