CDC director walks back Senate testimony that masks work BETTER against COVID-19 than vaccines after Donald Trump called him ‘confused’ and ‘mistaken’ and dismissed his claims a vaccine will NOT be available until next year
- CDC Director Robert Redfield told a Senate committee Wednesday face masks are better protection against COVID than a vaccine
- He also testified a vaccine wouldn’t be widely available until Q2 2021
- Donald Trump hit back saying the CDC head was ‘confused’, ‘made a mistake’ and must have ‘misunderstood’ the question being asked of him
- ‘No, the mask is not more important that the vaccine,’ Trump said, telling reporters he called Redfield to set him straight
- Redfield responded on social media Wednesday evening after Trump’s call
- He appeared to bow to pressure from the president insisting ‘I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines’
- The top virologist clarified he meant the current ‘best defense’ against the virus is masks and other ‘mitigation efforts’ while there is no vaccine
By RACHEL SHARP FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and NIKKI SCHWAB, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
CDC Director Robert Redfield has walked back his Senate testimony that masks work better against COVID-19 than vaccines, after Donald Trump called him ‘confused’ and ‘mistaken’ and dismissed his claims a vaccine will not be available until next year.
Redfield told a Senate committee Wednesday ‘this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine’ and said a vaccine wouldn’t be widely available to Americans until the second quarter of 2021.
Hours later Trump hit back at Redfield saying the CDC head was ‘confused’ and must have ‘misunderstood’ the question being asked of him.
The president said he had called Redfield to set the record straight and said the CDC boss had agreed he ‘answered that question incorrectly’ about the masks.
Redfield responded on social media Wednesday evening, where he appeared to bow to pressure from the president insisting ‘I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a #COVID19 vaccine’.
The top virologist clarified he meant the current ‘best defense’ against the virus is masks and other ‘mitigation efforts’ while there is no vaccine yet on the market.
CDC Director Robert Redfield has walked back his Senate testimony that masks work better against COVID-19 than vaccines, after Donald Trump called him ‘confused’ and ‘mistaken’ and dismissed his claims a vaccine will not be available until next year
Redfield responded on social media Wednesday evening, where he appeared to bow to pressure from the president insisting ‘I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines’
‘I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a #COVID19 vaccine. A COVID-19 vaccine is the thing that will get Americans back to normal everyday life,’ Redfield wrote on Twitter.
‘The best defense we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds.’
Social media users gave a mixed response to the virologist’s tweets, with some calling on him to resign for changing his advice on the deadly virus at the behest of Trump.
‘Are you confused and/or mistaken? I saw you give sworn testimony this morning. Trump says you were wrong and that he called you about it,’ one person tweeted.
‘Would you change your testimony after taking that phone call from him? You really should resign.’
Others urged him to stand by his testimony and said he would have ‘blood on your hands’ if he bowed to pressure from Trump.
‘Most important moment of your life. If you have an ounce of integrity, you will stick to your testimony and refute the president,’ one person tweeted.
‘If Trump still hangs you out to dry, you needs to quit immediately. If not, you are complicit with Trump and have blood on your hands.’
Another wrote: ‘Please stand your ground and stand behind your statement. We need someone we can trust with this very important information.
‘The American people need you to take a stand. We need you and the qualified doctors and science to do the speaking. Please.’
Social media users gave a mixed response to the virologist’s tweets, with some calling on him to resign for changing his advice on the deadly virus at the behest of Trump and others urging him to stand his ground against the president
Redfield’s somewhat backpedaling came after Trump contradicted his testimony saying the virologist was ‘confused’ and ‘made a mistake’ when he told Congress a coronavirus vaccine wouldn’t be widely available until the second quarter of next year.
Trump also said Dr. Robert Redfield must have ‘misunderstood’ a question when he told a Senate committee, ‘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.’
Trump opened a major public dispute with one of his most senior doctors at a freewheeling, almost hour-long coroanvirus briefing at which he also disclosed that a White House staff member had tested positive but said: ‘They were nowhere near me.’
In what appeared to be a repeat of his public feuds with Dr. Tony Fauci – and his contradiction of his own weather forecasters over Hurricane Dorian – he repeatedly claimed the CDC director’s sworn evidence to the Senate was confused, mistaken and that he did not understand the question.
Trump had tried to start the briefing by accusing Joe Biden of being anti-vaccine after the Democratic candidate said he ‘trusted scientists, the vaccine, but not Donald Trump,’ but instead found himself divided from his own senior medical experts – on a day when both numbers and deaths showed the first uptick since July.
‘No, the mask is not more important than the vaccine,’ Trump said, telling reporters he called Redfield earlier Wednesday to set him straight.
‘Maybe he misunderstood both of them,’ he said of the two questions posed to Redfield by U.S. senators that morning.
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