Transcript
As the death toll from coronavirus near is 87,000 in the US, President Trump is unveiling more details about “Operation Warp Speed.”
He says leaders of that group, which include former pharmaceutical executives and military personnel, are dedicated to developing a vaccine.
The group thinks it will have a vaccine and be able to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of it by the end of the year.
But Trump isn’t necessarily counting on it before opening the country.
When reporters asked him what he meant by that, Trump offered this explanation: “We think we’re going to have a vaccine in the pretty near future. And if we do, we’ll really be a big step ahead. And if we don’t, we’re going to be like so many other cases where you had a problem come in, it will go away at some point, it will go away.”
He also repeated his hope that a vaccine can be ready by the end of the year.
But health experts have said that’s unrealistic because of the lengthy process of researching and testing vaccine candidates.
Currently there are 118 potential Covid-19 vaccines in development around the world.
Posted – 5.16.20