United States President Donald Trump on Monday accused Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris of undermining public confidence in immunisation against the coronavirus and hinted again that a vaccine for the infection will be available before the November 3 election, AFP reported.

“It is so dangerous for our country what they [Biden and Harris] say,” Trump said at a media briefing. “The vaccine will be very safe and very effective.”

The president also called Biden “stupid” and demanded an apology for what he called “reckless” anti-vaccine rhetoric, according to Reuters. “It undermines science,” he said.

His comments came days after Harris said that she would not take Trump’s word on the safety and efficacy of a vaccine, especially if it is made available before the election. On Monday, Biden also said that he wanted transparency and scientific facts on any potential coronavirus vaccine. “I am worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it,” he said. “So he is [Trump] undermining public confidence.”

The vaccine has become a center point of a political row ahead of the presidential polls. Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had asked states to avoid the red tapes that could prevent many vaccine distribution centers from being fully operational before the election. Experts have been skeptical that vaccine trials, which study potential side effects on a wide range of people before delivering a result, can be completed by late this year.

Trump also claimed the fact that the vaccine could be available before the presidential vote has unnerved his political rivals, according to PTI. “Numbers are looking unbelievably strong, unbelievably good,” he said. So now they [Biden and Harris] will say, ‘wow Trump’s pulled this off. Ok, let us disparage the vaccine’. That’s so bad for this country. That’s so bad for the world to even say that. That’s what they’re saying.”

Trump took a dig at the vice-presidential nominee, claiming that she would not ever be a president. “I watched Kamala’s whole numbers drop from 15 to almost zero [during the Democratic primary] and then drop out even before she ran in Iowa [primary elections] because people didn’t like it,” he said. “And I understand why she will never be president.”

Apart from the row over the date of making a coronavirus vaccine available, the US president is also embroiled in another controversy where he is accused of making disparaging remarks about the country’s soldiers, who were captured or killed.

A news report published in The Atlantic said that the president has on multiple occasions insulted American soldiers, including calling those killed in combat during World War I as “losers” and “suckers”. A senior defense department official along with a US Marine Corps officer confirmed to AP that the president made “some of these remarks”.

On Monday, Trump again denied the allegations and called the story a “hoax”, AP reported. “I’m not saying the military’s in love with me,” he said about the allegations. “The soldiers are...The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

Meanwhile, the United States has so far reported 63,00,622 coronavirus cases and the toll stood at 1,89,208, according to the John Hopkins University data.