President Trump’s public rebuke of a top federal health official who did not parrot White House talking points about a fast-track coronavirus vaccine is the latest example of the president’s effort to enforce an upbeat narrative about the pandemic, even if that does not square with the facts.

Trump said Redfield “made a mistake” on both counts, although the CDC director’s projection about the timetable for vaccine approval and distribution mirrored those of other top officials, including Operation Warp Speed chief scientist Moncef Slaoui and Anthony S.

“It’s just incorrect information,” Trump said, adding that he had called Redfield after his Senate testimony.

3 election, Trump has keyed on a prospective coronavirus vaccine as a piece of good news that demonstrates his leadership amid a grinding pandemic, with continued job losses, school closures and disruptions to daily life.

But health and science experts say his continued swipes at the government’s own experts are undermining public trust in their guidance — as well as in an eventual vaccine.

After a confusing flurry of statements Wednesday evening from Redfield and the CDC, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Thursday morning that Redfield is not closely involved with the multibillion-dollar vaccine development process.

Redfield is only the latest of a number of health and science advisers who have clashed with the White House over the pandemic response, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Fauci and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx.

During the same briefing Wednesday where Trump said Redfield had gotten it wrong, the president turned to his favored in-house adviser on the pandemic, Stanford Hoover Institution neuroradiologist Scott Atlas, to describe the document to reporters.

Atlas, who has no background in infectious diseases or epidemiology, has echoed Trump in pushing for schools and college sports to resume, falsely said children and young people have nearly zero health risks from contracting the virus, and pressed for protecting the elderly and vulnerable while letting the rest of the country reopen.

Redfield’s remarks at the Senate hearing Wednesday — that a safe and effective vaccine could be approved by federal regulators and be made available in limited doses in November and December — were consistent with what other health and science officials, such as Fauci and Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, have said for weeks.

Hours later, Redfield sought to clarify his remarks in a pair of tweets, because administration officials were concerned that Redfield’s message would undermine efforts to get people vaccinated, the official said.

Redfield’s testimony was encouraging to some at the CDC because he sought to communicate what he knows, based on the latest science and evidence, said another administration official who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.