WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday said he hoped a COVID-19 vaccine would be available by the end of the year, and announced he was appointing a former pharmaceutical executive to spearhead the effort.
“We are looking to get it by the end of the year if we can, maybe before,” Trump said, as he delivered an update on the race for a vaccine. “We think we are going to have some very good results coming out very quickly,” he told reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House.
The timeline projected by Trump is more optimistic than what Europe foresees. The European Medicines Agency said a vaccine could be ready in a year’s time under an “optimistic scenario.”
Trump announced he would appoint Moncef Slaoui, the former head of GSK Vaccines, and four-star army general Gustave Perna, to lead “Operation Warp Speed.”
“My administration is providing roughly $10 billion to support a medical research effort without parallel,” the president said, comparing the effort with the Manhattan Project during World War 2 that led to the development of nuclear weapons.
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Trump added that when a vaccine was ready the military would be enlisted to distribute it and evoke a spirit of global cooperation.
“We are working together with many different countries, and again we have no ego,” he said. Whoever gets it, we think it is great, we are going to work with them and they’re going to work with us. If we get it, we’ll be working with them.”
Scientists have cautioned that it is possible that despite worldwide efforts, it is possible that an effective vaccine may never be found — or that some vaccines could backfire and make people more, not less, susceptible to infection.
READ MORE: WHO warns of COVID-19 risk until vaccines developed
