A leading medical journal is calling on Americans to dump US President Donald Trump in this year’s presidential elections, warning the coronavirus emergency won’t end until his “magic bullets” are replaced with proper public health measures.

In a scathing editorial, the Lancet takes aim at the Trump presidency for leaving the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an “ineffective and nominal advisor” during the pandemic.

“The administration is obsessed with magic bullets — vaccines, new medicines or a hope that the virus will simply disappear,” says the editorial.

“But only a steadfast reliance on basic public health principles, like test, trace and isolate, will see the emergency brought to an end and this requires an effective national public health agency.