President Trump Announces Ambitious Date for Coronavirus Vaccine

As it stands today, we have only social distancing to assist us in the fight against COVID-19, as the strain of coronavirus that causes the deadly illness is both novel and fairly new.

Sure, it’s a virus, and it behaves much like many other viruses, but that only comes into play when were talking about transmission – not a cure.  Washing hands, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze – these are the trusty weapons that we have against all viruses.

But to truly beat something that spreads this quickly, we’re going to need a vaccine.  President Trump thinks we’re a lot closer to that than some may have realized.

Likening it to the national push to build the atomic bomb during World War II, President Trump on Friday announced Operation Warp Speed, a government coordinating effort aimed at securing a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

“Operation Warp Speed, that means big and it means fast,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. “A massive scientific and industrial, logistic endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.”

Its objective is to finish developing and then manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible.

And just how fast are we talking?

“We’d love to see if we can do it prior to the end of the year,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to have some very good results coming out very quickly.”

Knowing what we know about American ingenuity, we wouldn’t put anything past us.