White House plans to turbocharge vaccine effort

The Trump administration hopes to deploy 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States and around the world by January. Former drug company executive Moncef Slaoui and U.S. Army Gen. Gustave Perna are spearheading the nearly $10 billion project, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, to fast-track a vaccine, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

Is that a realistic timeline? U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday called the target ambitious but not impossible. The Trump administration plans to support mass production of the most promising vaccines earlier in development so they can ship as soon as they receive approval. But European leaders are sounding a note of caution. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that “a vaccine might not come to fruition.” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Italy could not afford to wait for a vaccine and has given some businesses and churches the go-ahead to reopen.

Dig deeper: Read Julie Borg’s report in Beginnings about why vaccine development takes so long.