Tag: vaccine development

Trump’s new vaccine timeline met with deep skepticism

The Hill logoPublic health experts are pushing back on President Trump‘s claim that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year.

The Trump administration is racing to get a vaccine to the market quickly with “Operation Warp Speed” and has started to whittle down candidates.

The project’s goal is to have 300 million vaccine doses available by January, an accelerated version of the administration’s previous projections of needing 12-18 months to get a vaccine ready for the public. Continue reading.

The Daily 202: Ousted vaccine expert, alleging retaliation, is not the first scientist sidelined in Trump era

Washington Post logoPresident Trump said three times Wednesday that he had “never heard of” Rick Bright, the scientist who alleges he was removed as the leader of the federal agency working on a coronavirus vaccine because he resisted efforts to “provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.”

“The guy says he was pushed out of a job. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t,” the president said during his evening news conference at the White House. “I’d have to hear the other side. I don’t know who he is.”

Trump’s professed unfamiliarity with a top official tasked with developing a cure for a contagion that has killed at least 46,782 and infected 842,000 Americans is in and of itself remarkable. But it captures in miniature Trump’s strained relationship with scientific experts, who polls show voters rely on most for accurate information about the coronavirus. Continue reading.