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Trust Index fact check: Trump says ‘We’re weeks away from a vaccine’ -- true or false?

Trust Index fights information with local journalism and facts.

When will we have a COVID-19 vaccine?

The issue came up during Tuesday night’s first presidential debate between Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

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“We’re weeks away from a vaccine,” said Trump.

That is not what Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is considered one of America’s top infectious disease experts and is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said earlier this week.

“We predict that sometime by the end of this year, let’s say November or December, we will know whether or not these are safe and effective,” Fauci said at a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee hearing.

Fauci was talking about trials being done on vaccines, and said his team is “cautiously optimistic” about having a vaccine ready before the end of the year. Fauci also said there would likely only be 50 million doses by December. He said “it is not going to be a large proportion of the population” that receives the vaccine by the end of 2020.

That’s a bit longer than just “weeks” away, but Trump was not exactly specific in his statement.

The President did follow up his statement saying it could be sooner or later.

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