President Donald Trump and top health officials in his administration are poised to reveal a “major therapeutic breakthrough” on the new virus from China, the White House said.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump, Health Secretary Alex Azar, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn would hold a press conference regarding the breakthrough on Sunday.
Trump said in a social media statement that the briefing would be held at 5:30 p.m., teasing “Very good news!”
Scientists around the world have been scrambling to identify treatments for the disease while others work on developing a vaccine against the virus.
It’s obvious that the people there want to delay until after the Nov. 3 election, Trump said.
“Must focus on speed, and saving lives!” he added on Twitter, tagging Hahn’s account.
The FDA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“We’ve looked a number of people that are not being as diligent as they should be, in terms of getting to the bottom of it,“ Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, said Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s ”This Week. It’s difficult to fire government employees, he added.
“We really need to make sure that we have good science and the proper protocol, but we also can’t wait around and assume that this virus is going to go away. This president wants real results. And that’s why he took to Twitter,” Meadows said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the remarks “scary,” telling reporters in Washington Saturday that the FDA “has a responsibility to approve drugs with judging on their safety and their efficacy, not by a declaration from the White House about speed and politicizing the FDA.”
Few medicines have proven effective against COVID-19.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a clinical trial on Aug. 4 evaluating the safety and efficacy of potential new therapeutics, including an investigational one based on synthetic monoclonal antibodies. The trial is part of the agency’s effort to accelerate both treatments and vaccines through a public-private partnership program.
Developed by Eli Lilly and Company’s collaboration with NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the monoclonal antibody was isolated from a blood sample from a recovered COVID-19 patient before being synthesized in a lab.
“Using an antibody generated by the immune system of a recovered COVID-19 patient gives us a jump start on finding a safe and effective therapeutic,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the institute, said in a statement. “Investigating a variety of different therapeutics, including monoclonal antibodies, will help ensure that we advance towards an effective treatment for people suffering from COVID-19 disease as quickly as possible.”
