Trump Sets Hyper-Ambitious Goal Of Having Vaccine By End Of Year Despite Experts’ Caution
President Donald Trump acknowledged that "Operation Warp Speed" is risky and expensive, but he still made grand promises to have the capacity to distribute 300 million doses in January. That year-end goal is a “very bold plan ... a stretch goal if there ever was one,” warned NIH Director Francis Collins. While some experts say the unprecedented global race for a vaccine might shorten the expected timeline, there's been a broad consensus that there aren't too many corners left to cut without it being unsafe.
Stat:
Trump Administration Outlines Audacious Plan To Deliver ‘Hundreds Of Millions’ Of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses By End Of 2020
The Trump administration on Friday rolled out a hyper-ambitious plan to develop and manufacture hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of 2020, outlining an aggressive process that, if successful, would shatter conventional wisdom about the typical process for developing vaccines for emerging infectious diseases. At a Rose Garden press conference, the president and his deputies acknowledged their goal, dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” was lofty. Trump said the project was “risky and expensive.” Gustave Perna, a four-star general who oversees logistics for the U.S. Army, called the task “Herculean.” (Facher, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
US Begins 'Warp Speed' Vaccine Push As Studies Ramp Up
President Donald Trump vowed to use “every plane, truck and soldier” to distribute COVID-19 vaccines he hopes will be ready by year’s end — even as the country’s top scientists gear up for a master experiment to rapidly tell if any really work. Trump on Friday declared the vaccine program he calls “Operation Warp Speed” will be “unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.” The goal is to have 300 million doses in stock by January, a huge gamble since a vaccine never has been created from scratch so fast — and one that could waste millions if shots chosen for the production line don’t pan out. (Neergaard and Miller, 5/15)
Politico:
Trump Names Team To Develop Coronavirus Vaccine At ‘Warp Speed’
Moncef Slaoui, who left GlaxoSmithKline in 2017, will be chief scientist of what the administration has deemed Operation Warp Speed. "That means big and it means fast," Trump said, comparing the operation to the Manhattan Project, a program to develop an atomic bomb that employed more than 100,000 people. Army Gen. Gustave Perna will be the chief operating officer for the project. Trump said Operation Warp Speed is evaluating 14 vaccine candidates. "We're looking to get it by the end of the year, maybe before," he added. But Trump said that a lack of a vaccine would not prevent the United States from reopening. (Lim and Brennan, 5/15)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Vaccine Trial By Moderna Shows Promising Early Results
The first coronavirus vaccine to be tested in people appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the virus, its manufacturer, Moderna announced on Monday. The findings are based on results from the first eight people who each received two doses of the vaccine, starting in March. Those people, healthy volunteers, made antibodies that were then tested in human cells in the lab, and were able to stop the virus from replicating — the key requirement for an effective vaccine. The levels of those so-called neutralizing antibodies matched the levels found in patients who had recovered after contracting the virus in the community. (Grady, 5/18)
The Hill:
Gottlieb Says Widespread Coronavirus Vaccine Availability 'More Likely A 2021 Event'
A coronavirus vaccine likely won't be available for widespread distribution until 2021, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday. The health expert said there are a "lot of uncertainties" when going from scaling up manufacturing of a vaccine from an experimental basis to get quantities available for the wider population. "When you try to scale up and get volume, a lot of things can go wrong, a lot of things can be delayed. It's very hard to get to the point where you're manufacturing at high, high quantities," Gottlieb said on CBS's "Face the Nation." (Klar, 5/17)
Politico:
Vaccine Is Possible By End Of Year, Johns Hopkins Expert Says
A vaccine for the novel coronavirus is possible by the end of the year, but he wouldn’t “bank on it,” the director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said Sunday. “We should hold out some level of hope that if everything goes in the right direction, we could possibly be seeing a vaccine by the end of the year,” Dr. Tom Inglesby said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.“ (Cohen, 5/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Vaccine Within A Year Not Certain, Expert Warns
A coronavirus vaccine by year’s end is possible, but not something to “bank on,” a leading public health expert warned Sunday as the Trump administration continued to push for swift business reopenings in a bid to revive the battered U.S. economy. Aides to President Trump have touted vaccine prospects, but they’ve also tried to de-couple significant progress toward an immunization protocol from the need to return to workplaces, schools and public life, as many states are now moving to do. (King, 5/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Vaccine Front-Runners Emerge, Rollouts Weighed
Governments and drugmakers are weighing how to roll out coronavirus vaccines, including reserving the first batches for health-care workers, as several shots race to early leads. Of more than 100 vaccines in development globally, at least eight have started testing in humans, including candidates from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. At the same time, pharmaceutical giants like Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca PLC and Sanofi are building capacity to make hundreds of millions of doses of their own or their partners’ vaccines. (Loftus, 5/17)
Kaiser Health News:
Drugmakers Tout COVID-19 Vaccines To Refurbish Their Public Image
Johnson & Johnson researchers working on a vaccine against the coronavirus are “just like the heroes in the hospitals” fighting to save patients, J&J CEO Alex Gorsky said on the “Today” show a few weeks ago. It’s a message he likes to deliver. In recent weeks, Gorsky has talked about J&J’s efforts on NBC’s “Today” and twice on CNBC and Fox. Nobody asked him about high drug prices, J&J’s role in the opioid crisis or lawsuits alleging its baby powder caused cancer. (Hancock, 5/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Vaccine Could Come From California, With No Shot Needed
Bay Area researchers’ proximity to leading health care centers and Silicon Valley has given them a leading role in developing drugs to treat COVID-19. It could also give local companies and institutions a leg up in the global race to create a vaccine. Several have set out to create a highly effective product that can be distributed widely. (Morris, 5/17)
