WASHINGTON, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump has promised the US will reopen “vaccine or no vaccine” as he announced a plan to deliver a coronavirus jab by year’s end.
He likened the vaccine project, dubbed “Operation Warp Speed”, to the World War Two effort to produce the world’s first nuclear weapons.
But Trump emphasised: “Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back.”
Speaking at a White House Rose Garden news conference, Trump said the project would begin with studies on 14 promising vaccine candidates for accelerated research and approval.
“That means big and it means fast,” he said of Operation Warp Speed. “A massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavour unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.”
Trump named an Army general and a former healthcare executive to lead the operation, a partnership between the government and private sector to find and distribute a vaccine.
Moncef Slaoui, who previously led the vaccines division at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, will lead the mission, while Gen Gustave Perna, who oversees distribution for the US Army, is to serve as chief operating officer.
Speaking after Trump, Slaoui said he was “confident” that a “few hundred million doses of vaccine” will be delivered by the end of 2020.
Trump made clear that even without a vaccine, Americans must begin to return to their lives as normal.
“I don’t want people to think this is all dependent on a vaccine,” he said. “Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back. And we’re starting the process.”
“In many cases they don’t have vaccines and a virus or a flu comes and you fight through it,” he added. “Other things have never had a vaccine and they go away.”
“I think the schools should be back in the fall,” Trump added.
‘Warp Speed’ is the latest of several Covid response projects Washington has undertaken.
In March, the White House launched a testing initiative, enlisting major pharmacy retailers like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid to set up drive-through testing sites throughout the country. Such partnerships have stalled, however, and the US has faced continued criticism for its lags in testing.
In recent weeks, the White House announced further efforts and has helped ramp up testing to nearly 10 million as of May 15, according to the Our World in Data database.
Besides the new White House jab initiative, the Food and Drug Administration is also evaluating vaccine candidates for possible human trials. — NNN-AGENCIES