President Trump on Friday announced the appointment of two officials to a project focused on speeding up development of a coronavirus vaccine, with one expressing confidence over an optimistic end of 2020 timeline.
Trump on Friday said pharmaceutical conglomerate GlaxoSmithKline's former chair Moncef Slaoui and Army General Gustave Perna will head this Operation Warp Speed project. Some experts have described having a COVID-19 vaccine developed in 12 to 18 months as possible if efforts go smoothly, while others have described this timeline as overly optimistic.
In a Rose Garden press conference, Slaoui called the project's objectives "extremely challenging' but "credible," and he said that based on "early data" he's seen from a clinical trial, he feels "even more confident that we will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020. And we will do the best we can to do that."
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.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, perviously said it's "doable" to have hundreds of millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine ready by January, although he warned that this is only "if things fall in the right place." But on Thursday, Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted federal official and whistleblower who was leading coronavirus vaccine development, was far less confident in this timeline when he testified before Congress.
"A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12 to 18 month timeframe, if everything goes perfectly," Bright said. "We've never seen everything go perfectly. ... I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule, and I think it's going to take longer than that to do so." Brendan Morrow
-
Violent videos of Charlie Kirk’s death are renewing debate over online censorshipTalking Points Social media ‘promises unfiltered access, but without guarantees of truth and without protection from harm’
-
What led to Poland invoking NATO’s Article 4 and where could it lead?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION After a Russian drone blitz, Warsaw’s rare move to invoke the important NATO statute has potentially moved Europe closer to continent-wide warfare
-
Africa could become the next frontier for space programsThe Explainer China and the US are both working on space applications for Africa
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
