U.S. President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy [Photo courtesy of AFP/Yonhap News. Reproduction and database prohibited]

(Washington = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Dong-hyun = U.S. President Donald Trump argued on the 1st (local time) that pharmaceutical companies must resolve the controversy over the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, which has become the cause of conflict between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on the same day, President Trump stated, "It is very important for pharmaceutical companies to justify the success of their various COVID-19 drugs."

"Many people consider the drugs a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree. The CDC is divided on this issue, and I want an answer, and I want it now," he said.

The CDC, which oversees the U.S. response to disease, is experiencing significant turmoil as Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a "vaccine skeptic," pushes for policies that restrict the use of COVID-19 vaccines.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who resisted Kennedy's policies as unscientific, was dismissed, and other high-ranking officials have also resigned under pressure from the Trump administration.

Amidst this, President Trump supports Secretary Kennedy's restructuring of the CDC, but he is also in a position where he must consider that the development of COVID-19 vaccines is his major achievement.

During his first term in 2020, when COVID-19 spread in the U.S., President Trump ordered "Operation Warp Speed," a vaccine development program, and has promoted it as having saved many lives.

On this day, President Trump pointed out that pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer had shown him information that their COVID-19 drugs were great, but by not disclosing this information to the public, individuals like Secretary Kennedy and the CDC are fighting over whether COVID-19 drugs are successful.

"I want the pharmaceutical companies to immediately show the CDC and the public the information, and I want them to resolve this mess in some way. I hope Operation Warp Speed was as successful as many people say, and if it wasn't successful, we all want to know that and why," he said.

bluekey@yna.co.kr

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