“These are the people — the best, the smartest, the most brilliant anywhere,” Trump said Tuesday during the signing of an executive order on policing,” reports The Hill.
“And they’ve come up with the AIDS vaccine. They’ve come up with — or the AIDS. And they — as you know, there’s various things, and now various companies are involved. But the therapeutic for AIDS — AIDS was a death sentence, and now people live a life with a pill. It’s an incredible thing,” Trump added.
Perhaps Trump was referring to daily antiretroviral drugs – called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEPs are drugs like Truvada and Descovy that are about 99 percent effective at reducing the risk of getting HIV from sex, according to the CDC.
President Trump inaccurately says an AIDS vaccine exists while predicting a coronovirus vaccine by the end of 2020, and falsely accuses the Obama administration of making no effort to stop abusive policing, an #APFactCheck finds. June 16, 2020
The president also cited the Ebola vaccine in his speech, predicting a coronavirus vaccine will be available by the end of the year. What he failed to mention was that it took nearly two decades before an Ebola vaccine became available, and we can thank a Canadian researcher for his persistence in not giving up on finding the vaccine.
“These are the people that have done it, or these are the people that have been around it, and they’re all competing. It’s an incredible thing. All of these brilliant firms, labs, companies are competing. And I will tell you, we’re very far advanced. We’ve already started tests and trials,” Trump said.
The president’s comments come as the coronavirus pandemic has now infected over 2.1 million Americans and killed at least 119,204, according to the latest data.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump administration officials said the coronavirus vaccine will be provided free of charge to Americans who can’t afford it, reports CNBC News.
The social media response was quick
The public, including scientists and news media, was quick to call out Trump’s false statement on Twitter, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) who responded to Trump’s comments with a “FACT CHECK” and noted that PrEP “can be extremely expensive.” Eugene Gu, CEO of Cool Quit, said Trump’s remarks about an AIDS vaccine are “dangerous” and could cause confusion, as PrEP needs to be taken regularly as directed by a doctor.
FACT CHECK: There is no AIDS vaccine.
In fact, PrEP, a drug that’s highly effective in preventing HIV, can be extremely expensive — and the Trump administration’s program that’s supposed to cover the cost for thousands of uninsured people requires out-of-pocket testing fees. June 16, 2020
And just one more Twitter response to get the day started:
2 died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign.
4 died in Benghazi: They had Hillary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings, and launched a multiyear probe.
118,741 died thanks to Trump’s incompetence: They cheered him in the Rose Garden. #TrumpPressConference
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) June 16, 2020