Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday evening that a vaccine for the coronavirus could well be available this fall.
“In the first few weeks of February, we actually began the process of developing a vaccine,” Mr. Pence said on Fox News. “And you just heard a week ago that we’re already at a historic pace, in phase three clinical trials of the first coronavirus vaccine for this country. Could well be available for this fall.”
The Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” is trying to leverage public and private resources to develop a vaccine by the end of the year or early next year.
Mr. Pence said cases across the Sun Belt are starting to stabilize, though some midwestern states like Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee are now seeing upticks.
“Cases are declining,” he said. “Emergency room visits are declining. And we’re going to work closely with states all across the heartland.”
Mr. Pence said that Americans know President Trump has “spared no expense.”
“He’s marshaled not only a whole-of-government response to the coronavirus pandemic, but a whole-of-America response,” the vice president said.
There are now more than 4.7 million cases in the U.S. and more than 155,000 coronavirus-related deaths among a population of more than 300 million people, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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