MORRISVILLE, NC – President Trump
Donald John Trump Biden to pay tribute to Lewis on Capitol Hill Monday. Cotton asked for comments on slavery in criticism of the 1619 Draft Congress slated for disorderly COVID-19 talks on a tight deadline. and Vice President Pence hit the road Monday to highlight progress in developing a vaccine for COVID-19, seeking to project optimism about the administration’s response to a pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 people in the U.S. .
Trump visited a biotech facility here to brag about rapid progress in finding a vaccine to combat the pandemic, alleging that his administration’s work through its vaccine development effort, Operation Warp Speed, had reduced the time it takes to wait in “years”.
He praised the project as a “landmark initiative to develop, test, manufacture and deliver a vaccine in record time.”
Trump began his remarks by noting that Moderna had officially entered phase three of the clinical trials. The president, wearing a mask, also toured the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnology Innovation Center on Monday afternoon.
The trip to North Carolina was brief: He spent about an hour inside the biotech facility in total, but he kept a close eye on the message. Trump spoke optimistically about the prospects for a vaccine that experts say may not be widely available for another year, and barely mentioned the growing number of cases that most states are seeing.
Trump made an extremely short tour of the lab, appearing in front of reporters for about five minutes. He wore a mask for that part of the visit, just the second time he did so in front of the press cameras months after health officials urged the widespread use of facial covers to slow the spread of the virus.
While Trump was in North Carolina, Pence traveled to Florida to mark the start of phase three trials for a coronavirus vaccine. The vice president visited the University of Miami. The university’s medical school is participating in a study of 30,000 people for one of the vaccine candidates developed by Moderna.
Florida has emerged in recent weeks as the new epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with the state reporting more than 432,000 infections in total and setting records for daily infections.
The Trump administration has struggled to control the pandemic amid mixed messages from Trump and spikes in cases across the country in recent weeks. More than 4.2 million Americans in total have been infected with COVID-19. The situation hit the White House on Monday when it was revealed that national security adviser Robert O’Brien had tested positive for the virus, the highest-ranking official to date.
Last week, Trump resumed regular briefings on the coronavirus after a pause of about two months. The president noted that briefings would focus specifically on vaccine therapeutics and development as the White House tries to reaffirm Trump as the face of the government’s response.
The White House halted briefings in late April after they drifted repeatedly, with Trump arguing with journalists, attacking state leaders, and reflecting at one point on the use of disinfectants to treat the virus.
Trump has pinned hopes of a rapid economic rebound and a return to pandemic normalcy on the rapid development of a vaccine. Experts have expressed optimism about the prospects of having more than one vaccine approved in early 2021, citing the volume of vaccines being developed worldwide and the influx of federal government resources through Operation Warp Speed.
Trump, as he previously did, said Monday that he believed a vaccine could be available by the end of the year.
“I heard very positive things, but by the end of the year, we think we are in very good shape to do so,” the president told reporters during a briefing at the Morrisville facility.
Pence told reporters at a separate briefing in Miami that he expected the first doses to apply to the most vulnerable members of the American population, specifically mentioning older people.
The administration has already invested billions of dollars in several different companies in hopes of having a successful vaccine, including Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. Earlier this month, the administration announced that it would pay the small Maryland-based company Novavax $ 1.6 billion for its COVID-19 vaccine.
The government announced a deal of about $ 2 billion last week with Pfizer and a smaller German biotech company for dosing and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.
But Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci COVID’s broader impact: some gaps will last forever, some don’t need to be Sinclair to delay broadcast of interview with investigator in conspiracy video, Cheney battle ‘Plandemic’ raises questions about House GOP future MORE, the government’s top infectious disease expert and other public health officials have warned that a successful vaccine may not be widely available until several months until 2021.
Morgan Chalfant contributed.
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