WASHINGTON (AP) — Seizing on a medical milestone that doesn’t exist, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, June 16th he thinks the same scientific expertise that produced a vaccine for AIDS can deliver one soon for COVID-19, too. There is no vaccine for AIDS.
Trump also accused the previous administration of making no effort to stop abusive policing, ignoring a conspicuous drive by President Barack Obama to do just that.
Trump addressed policing and the pandemic in remarks at the White House for the signing of an executive order encouraging better law enforcement practices. A day earlier, his vice president mischaracterized the state of the pandemic in Oklahoma as Trump gears up for a weekend rally in Tulsa, his first such event in months.
A look at their statements:
TRUMP, on scientists: “These are the people – the best, the smartest, the most brilliant anywhere, and they’ve come up with the AIDS vaccine. They’ve come up with … various things.” — Tuesday at the White House.
THE FACTS: No one has come up with a vaccine for AIDS, nor is there a cure. Nearly 38,000 people were diagnosed with HIV infection in the U.S. and about 1.7 million globally in 2018, according to the latest totals.
However, powerful medicines have turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition for many patients, prompting major global efforts to get those drugs to more of the people who need them.
In addition, taking certain anti-HIV drugs every day also can work as prevention, dramatically reducing the chances that someone who is still healthy becomes infected through sex or injection drug use. A small fraction of the Americans who might benefit use that so-called “pre-exposure prophylaxis.”
Yet there is “no vaccine available that will prevent HIV infection or treat those who have it,” says the U.S. Health & Human Services Department in outlining efforts to develop one.
Trump may have been trying to correct himself when he followed up with the comment that science has “various things” for AIDS.
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