The Trump administration is reportedly organizing a Manhattan Project-style effort to expedite the development of a coronavirus vaccine


Experts say the predicted development timeline for an approved COVID-19 vaccine is already remarkably quick at an estimated 12 to 18 months. But the Trump administration is aiming to get one out even faster, much like Oxford University, Bloomberg reports.
Two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the administration is orchestrating a Manhattan Project-style operation that aims to have 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine out by the end of the year. It will take a united effort by private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and the military to get there.
The expedited timeframe will also likely be wasteful, Bloomberg notes. It will cost billions of dollars and require mass production of vaccine candidates that may fail (rendering them useless), so the ones that don't are ready to be distributed widely upon approval.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The project will reportedly be funded by money the government already has and won't require congressional approval. Those resources will first be used to test experimental vaccines in animals before launching coordinated human clinical trials to further narrow the field. There are numerous candidates in development already, but the efforts haven't been cohesive. Read more at Bloomberg.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Ukraine, European leaders to meet Trump after Putin talks
Speed Read Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week
-
August 18 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Vladimir Putin meeting with Donald Trump, RFK Jr. honoring the spread of germs, and WNBA fans
-
Jonathan Powell: who is the man behind Keir Starmer's foreign policy?
Today's Big Question Prime minister's national security adviser is a 'world-class operator'
-
Ukraine, European leaders to meet Trump after Putin talks
Speed Read Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week
-
Border agents crash Newsom redistricting kickoff
Speed Read Armed federal Border Patrol agents amassed outside the venue where the California governor and other Democratic leaders were gathered
-
Man charged for hoagie attack as DC fights takeover
Speed Read The Trump administration filed felony charges against a man who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent
-
Trump BLS nominee floats ending key jobs report
Speed Read On Fox News, E.J. Antoni suggested scrapping the closely watched monthly jobs report
-
Trump picks conservative BLS critic to lead BLS
speed read He has nominated the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics
-
Trump takes over DC police, deploys National Guard
Speed Read The president blames the takeover on rising crime, though official figures contradict this concern
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crime
Speed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monuments
Speed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder