US Vice-Presidential debate 2020: Harris says she'll not take any vaccine touted by Trump

As the US vice presidential debate opened on October 8, Democratic nominees Kamala Harris said that if there is a coronavirus vaccine available during Trump’s administration that is not embraced by scientific advisers but pushed by the President, she will not take it. Harris, who has repeatedly slammed the Trump administration over its handling of the pandemic, yet again denounced their response and even called it the ‘greatest failure’. She said that she would not outright trust a vaccine unless it came from a ‘credible’ source. 

Harris said, “The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country”. 

She went on to say, “If Dr Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it. Absolutely,” Harris said. “But if Donald Trump tells us to take it, I’m not taking it”. 

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US Vice President and Republican nominee Mike Pence then slammed Harris for her statements questioning whether a vaccine released under Trump could be trusted due to the intense pressure on the president to tame the pandemic. As in the past months, Harris has questioned the vaccine approved by Trump, Pence jumped on those past comments and said that her ‘continuous undermining’ of confidence in a vaccine is ‘unacceptable’. 

Pence said, “The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable”. 

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Harris, Pence on COVID-19 pandemic 

On Thursday, with two minutes to respond, COVID-19 pandemic was the opening question for both the leaders. While Harris denounced the Trump administration's response to the pandemic stating that more than 210,000 Americans have lost their life, Pence lauded the same. Harris said that both Trump and Pence were informed about the nature of the pandemic from January 28, on the other hand, the Vice President condemned Biden-Harris approach that according to him ‘looks plagiarised’. 

Harris answered the opening question first, followed by Pence. On getting a chance to respond to US VP’s remarks, Senator said that whatever the Trump administration did “it clearly didn’t work”. The only vice-presidential debate comes after a chaotic week in the United States involving first disjointed debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, US President’s COVID-19 diagnosis, followed by his hospitalisation and return to the White House.

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