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Despite President Trump appearing to undermine him on the issues of masks and vaccine timing, Dr. Robert Redfield has given no indications that he might resign — or has even considered resigning — as the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal health official close to the situation tells CNN.
“He’s marching on,” the official said, adding Redfield has “been in this position before where he said something the President didn’t like.”
The official said Redfield is “taking it in stride” and focused on the work at hand, a day after Trump’s comments at the briefing.
What this is all about: Redfield said in a Senate hearing yesterday that the American public could expect to start seeing results from widespread coronavirus vaccination in the second or third quarter of 2021. Even if a vaccine for Covid-19 was released today, it would take six to nine months for enough people to receive it to create immunity, he said.
Later in the day, the President told reporters Redfield was “confused” when he said that. “I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information,” Trump said.
Redfield also said masks may be a more effective protection against coronavirus than any potential vaccine that the President can’t stop hyping. “”I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70%. And if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will,” he said.
Later, the President said Redfield’s comments were incorrect and that Redfield may have misunderstood the question.
“Maybe he misunderstood it,” Trump said, later adding, “As far as the masks are concerned, I hope that the vaccine is going to be a lot more beneficial than the masks.”
John King reports:
