Claims at ABC town hall that COVID would disappear without a vaccine via "herd mentality"

At an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia hosted by George Stephanopoulos, Trump defended his repeated claim that the coronavirus would "go away," asserting it would disappear even without a vaccine. He said, "It would go away without the vaccine, George, but it's going to go away a lot faster with it," and continued, "And you'll develop -- you'll develop herd -- like a herd mentality," apparently conflating herd mentality with herd immunity. Public-health experts noted that pursuing herd immunity without a vaccine would entail vast additional deaths; the claim came six days after the Woodward tapes showed he privately understood the virus's severity.

"And you'll develop -- you'll develop herd -- like a herd mentality. It's going to be -- it's going to be herd-developed, and that's going to happen. That will all happen." Quote verified against source