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Trump Touts Coronavirus Vaccine Progress As Cases Climb

President Trump speaks in the briefing room at the White House on Nov 5. Trump is set to give an update Friday at the White House about efforts to combat the coronavirus.
President Trump speaks in the briefing room at the White House on Nov 5. Trump is set to give an update Friday at the White House about efforts to combat the coronavirus.

President Trump is set to give an update Friday afternoon on the administration's efforts to accelerate coronavirus vaccine development and distribution. It will be Trump's first public remarks since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election last Saturday.

Watch his remarks live from the White House Rose Garden beginning at 4 p.m. ET.

The remarks come as the coronavirus pandemic is surging again across the country. More than 10 million people have had confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. and more than 243,000 had died.

One potential bright spot amid the spike came Monday, when Pfizer announced that its experimental vaccine was found to be more than 90% effective — exceeding the Food and Drug Administration's minimum effectiveness bar of 50%. Still, more data is needed before the FDA permits distribution.

Trump's Rose Garden comments follow a week-long pause on public events — aside from a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday for Veterans Day, where he did not give remarks.

Despite Biden's win and sustained lead in electoral votes, Trump has refused to conceded to his Democratic opponent and has falsely claimed on Twitter that widespread voter fraud tipped the election. His campaign has pursued a litany of lawsuits challenging the results, an effort that has largely failed.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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