Coronavirus Vaccine By Year’s End No Longer ‘aspirational’ but ‘likely,’; Vaccines Are Not All Created Equal, and Other C-Virus Updates

Challenged by members of Congress on whether a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine is possible by year’s end, the Army general and master logistician chosen to lead the development effort says he is convinced the Department of Defense will deliver.

“What I thought was an aspirational goal 30 days ago when I was announced by the president, I have recently come to the conclusion that it is more and more likely to occur,” said U.S. Army Gen. Gus Perna, COO of the vaccine and therapeutic development effort dubbed Operation Warp Speed.

President Trump announced the joint Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services initiative on May 15, promising to deliver 300 million coronavirus vaccines by Jan. 1, 2021.

In the intervening month, the public and Congress have worried that a vaccine will be rushed to the public without sufficient testing.

“We want a vaccine, not a headline,” said Sen. Jack Reed, in Perna’s Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Thursday.

LINK: Vaccines are not all created equal: a variety of ways

to stop the virus that causes COVID-19

The Rhode Island Democrat cited two stumbles in the race to quickly respond to coronavirus needs. First, the failure to adequately source personal protective equipment and the reliance on PPE from China to meet urgent hospital needs. The second was the misrepresentation of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a suitable coronavirus therapeutic before it turned out to cause collateral damage.

“The key to our success is to ensure we rely on science to assess our options, effectiveness, and risk,” Perna told members of Congress. “All medical protocols will be executed, and vaccines will be FDA approved.”

The Department of Defense was chosen for the much-hyped Operation Warp Speed because of its logistics capacity.

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