Donald Trump looks to vaccine as a booster in 2020 election race

Donald Trump focuses on search for a coronavirus vaccine in a bid to turn the crisis into a vote-winner after months of bad polls.

Donald Trump tours a biotech company in North Carolina. Picture: Reuters

US President Donald Trump is focusing on the search for a coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to turn the crisis into a vote winner after months of bad poll figures.

Before the election in November his campaign advisers want to turn the national conversation towards the economic recovery and US innovation behind therapeutics and vaccines, and away from the President’s much-criticised handling of the outbreak.

The first advanced US vaccine trials began on Monday (Tuesday AEST), but Mr Trump faced another setback when National ­Security Adviser Robert O’Brien became the most senior administration figure to test positive.

The White House said Mr O’Brien, 54, was working remotely and had mild symptoms. “There is no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President,” it said.

Deaths in the US neared 146,000 on Monday in a resurgence widely attributed to the rush — at Mr Trump’s encouragement — to resume activity before the outbreak was under control.

The President visited a biotech company in North Carolina on Monday as part of the new strategy. He wore a mask while touring the facility.

Most polling shows Mr Trump, 74, trailing his Democrat rival Joe Biden, 77, by double digits.

Mr Trump said the White House’s Operation Warp Speed would deliver a vaccine in “record time”. He said: “Therapeutically we are very very advanced; you’ll be hearing about it a lot more in the next two weeks. We will achieve a victory over the virus by unleashing America’s scientific genius, which is what it is.”

He said years had been “shaved off” vaccine development without compromising safety. Mr Trump also said the mortality rate had fallen dramatically since the early days of the virus thanks to therapeutics. Asked if he was trying to exude a new sense of optimism, Mr Trump said: “It is about that and it’s also the vaccine … is coming along really well”.

This was the thinking behind the relaunch of daily virus briefings last week. After a break of two months, the President delivers them on his own in the White House. Advisers hope he will soon be able to announce good news on treatments and inoculation.

Mr Trump’s visit coincided with the start of the first phase three vaccine trial in America, the fourth in the world after similar progress by the AstraZeneca-Oxford University project and two in China. The first volunteers in Savannah, Georgia received injections developed by biotechnology company Moderna and the ­National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The trial aims to enrol 30,000 adults and evaluate the safety of the vaccine and whether it can prevent COVID-19. Volunteers will receive two 100-microgram injections of either the vaccine or a placebo 28 days apart.

The Times