No one is telling me we’ll be able to get a vaccine before winter ’21 – Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday the earliest a vaccine against the coronavirus can be expected is at the end of 2021.

“No one is telling me we’ll be able to get a vaccine before winter ’21,” Macron said while visiting the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where researchers developed a test for the coronavirus and are working on developing treatment and a vaccine.

“I’m saying this because in times like these it’s important to have a time horizon so I can’t tell you we’re going to find a miracle vaccine that will allow us to stop the epidemic this summer, it’s not true,” Macron added.

His statement stands in sharp contrast to a much more optimistic prediction from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed hope Tuesday after talks with a German biotech company that “we can have a vaccine on the market, perhaps before autumn.”

The European Medicines Agency also predicts a longer timeline.

Via POLITICO