Trump Administration Launches Operation to Speed Up Coronavirus Vaccine Development | 30 April, 2020

The Trump administration is launching a project to accelerate the development of a potential coronavirus vaccine, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

The project, called "Operation Warp Speed," has the goal of manufacturing hundreds of millions of doses that can be made available to Americans by the end of the year, the official said. No vaccine has been created yet, though multiple projects are in the works around the world.

The effort aims to dramatically cut short the usual development time for a vaccine. It's not clear whether the project could realistically meet that goal.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly cautioned that a vaccine for the virus would take between a year and 18 months.

The official said pharmaceutical companies and government researchers would work together to beat that timeline, in what's described as a Manhattan Project-like effort.

The effort, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US surges past 1 million, with researchers saying the number of deaths could rise in coming weeks.

(Source: CNN)