Trump makes outrageous claim that FDA held back vaccine until after election

US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump has outrageously claimed a coronavirus vaccine was held back in order to hurt his re-election chances. The US President was beaten by rival Joe Biden after the former Senator smashed Barack Obama's record for the most votes in an election, with his win announced on Saturday.

However, yesterday pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced early data from its Covid-19 vaccine trial indicates it is more than 90 per cent effective.

It signals victory is in sight in the war against a virus that has killed over a million people and battered the world's economy.

Experts and world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, however, have reiterated this would not immediately bring an end to the pandemic and people must remain cautious.

But Trump, whose lawyers have filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state which swung to Biden, ordering 600,000 'fraudulent' votes be cast out, is adding anything he can to his slim chances of overturning the result.

The Republican leader now claims the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the Democrats held back news of a vaccine until after the election. He took to Twitter to claim his opponents and the FDA manipulated the pandemic response to prevent him being re-elected.

"The @US_FDA and the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election, so instead it came out five days later – As I’ve said all along!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The billionaire businessman often claimed on the campaign trail that a vaccine would be ready by election day. Pfizer have denied any allegations that politics played a part in the timing of their announcement.

Scientists, public health officials and investors welcomed the first successful interim data from a large-scale clinical test as a watershed moment that could help turn the tide of the pandemic if the full trial results pan out.

However, mass roll-outs, which needs regulatory approval, will not happen this year and several vaccines are seen as necessary to meet massive global needs.

Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE said they had found no serious safety concerns yet and expected to seek US emergency use authorisation this month, raising the chance of a regulatory decision as soon as December.