Operation Warp Speed sets ‘goal’ of 300 million coronavirus vaccines by January 2021

By | May 15, 2020

The Defense Department took pains Friday to emphasize that President Trump’s promise to produce 300 million coronavirus vaccines by January 2021 is a “goal,” while a spokesman also told the Washington Examiner that a shake-up of the Pentagon team acquiring medical equipment did not signify a change in direction.

President Trump on Friday morning promised the development and delivery of coronavirus vaccines for all U.S. residents by January 2021.

“That means the full power and strength of military, the military,” Trump said alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar at a White House announcement of “Operation Warp Speed,” a plan to develop, manufacture, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

“We’re looking for a full vaccine for everyone that wants to get it,” Trump added.

When asked by the president to clarify, Azar said that meant a vaccine for everyone nationwide in just over seven months.

“The answer is yes, we’re working for a fully approved vaccine,” he said. “We use all of our regulatory tools to [make a] vaccine available for the entire American population by January.”

The Pentagon reframed the president and secretary’s promises as a “goal” later on Friday.

“He set a goal, and then you work back from there,” Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said at a Pentagon press briefing. “You set a goal. You have confidence that you’re going to put the resources to it to obtain that goal. And I think that’s what the secretary and that’s what the president are saying, is that we have a goal, we’ve got the team together, we’ve committed to putting the resources to it, and we’re going to obtain that goal.”

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Hoffman later added: “Great announcement today — having Operation Warp Speed and the goal of getting to 300 million vaccines by January of next year.”

But Secretary of Defense Mark Esper gave little room for movement in his White House comments earlier in the day, adding the vaccine would be ready for partners abroad as well.

“Winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale, to treat the American people and our partners abroad,” he said. “We will get the job done.”

The joint White House program will be headed by the Pentagon and the Department of Health and Human Services and will be led by Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna.

The initiative will also draw on efforts already underway by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration.

The Pentagon released a statement explaining how Operation Warp Speed would use $ 10 billion allocated by Congress as part of the CARES Act, $ 6.5 billion designated for COVID-19 countermeasures, and $ 3 billion for NIH research to fund the program.

So far, 14 vaccine candidates are being studied with the goal of narrowing them down to eight candidates for early stage clinical trials.

Large-scale randomized trials will proceed for three to five of the candidates, the statement said. Once a vaccine is ready, the Pentagon will help with distribution and administration.

The major announcement to obtain a vaccine comes the day after the Pentagon fired Jen Santos, the acquisitions and sustainment official leading Defense Production Act measures to ramp up domestic production capacity of urgently needed medical supplies.

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Hoffman told the Washington Examiner that firing the Defense Logistics Agency official was not a sign of a shift in strategy.

“I wouldn’t say it’s moving in a new direction. It was just a personnel change,” he said, noting her reassignment to a role in Navy acquisitions. “We’re going to take advantage of it to bolster the team at Navy, as well as find a different skill set within the A&S portfolio.”

The Washington Examiner also asked Hoffman for an update on the department’s acquisition of testing materials and testing kits while states still face gross shortages, according to experts.

“Our testing capabilities continue to increase,” he said of the capacity to meet military testing needs outlined recently.

“What we have seen nationwide is that testing capacity and the testing infrastructure has grown organically as the demand has increased, and so, the industry has stepped up in that case,” he added.

Healthcare