Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Says Covid Vaccine Will Be Ready For ‘Emergency Use’ By End of 2020

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Monday the United States will “make sure” a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready for “emergency use” by the end of 2020.

“The focus is kids and jobs and vaccines,” Mnuchin told reporters in the Oval Office during a session with GOP leaders. “We are going to make sure we have a vaccine by the end of the year for emergency use.”

Under section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA may “allow unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions caused by CBRN threat agents when there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.”

Experts have questioned if a vaccine will be approved by the FDA by the end of the year after the department pulled emergency use of hydroxychloroquine on June 15 after several studies found adverse effects for Covid-19 relief to the anti-malaria drug.

On Monday, Oxford University scientists claimed that the early stages of their potential coronavirus vaccine has prompted an immune response in hundreds of people. Still, more tests are needed to prove its vaccine could fight off Covid-19 — later experiments will involve 10,000 people and another in the U.S. will test 30,000 people.

Even if a vaccine is rolled out to the public, there is still a large share of Americans who are unsure about taking it. In May, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that almost half of Americans are unsure about taking a coronavirus vaccine when it arrives. Another poll also found 36 percent of people would be less likely to take a vaccine if President Donald Trump vouches for it.

Watch above, via Fox News.