PAF
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- Joined
- Feb 26, 2012
- Messages
- 11,956
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THE PRESIDENT: And I have to say, we’re also very, very much involved in other things other than the vaccine. If you take a look at what we’re doing beyond vaccines, it’s going to be very interesting and we may talk about that in a little — in a little while.
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DR. SLAOUI: Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon everyone. It’s a great honor and a privilege for me to have the opportunity to serve our country and the world in this remarkable endeavor — extraordinary endeavor — helping them and supporting them to do it.
The Operation Warp Speed’s objectives are very clear. The President has described them. And I believe they are very credible. I also believe they are extremely challenging. However, I am really confident that our team across the many governmental agencies that are involved in these efforts — the NIH, the CDC, the FDA, ASPR, and, of course, with the support of the Army — and our partners in the private sector, we’ll be able and we’ll do the utmost to deliver these objectives.
GENERAL PERNA: Good afternoon, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you for this great honor for allowing me to be a part of this team. I’m very excited about this team. It will be historic as we execute the mission that’s been given to us. I also feel very confident that the team will be able to provide the results as directed. It is going to be a Herculean task, but the combination of the two main partners — between Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense — their combined strengths, partnered with the other teammates, will ensure our success.
One of the great advantages that we have as a military is our ability to do logistical and sustainment operations afar. We’re just going to apply those capabilities to this mission. This mission is about defeating the enemy. We will defeat the enemy. Why? Because winning matters.
And I’m excited to be a part of this team. And, Mr. President, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, General. We appreciate it. (Applause.)
SECRETARY AZAR: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership of this historic effort. Your vision for Operation Warp Speed, setting a goal of a vaccine by January 2021, will be one of the great scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in human history.
We started work on each of these areas in January, and Congress has provided nearly $10 billion explicitly for this kind of research and development effort. Operation Warp Speed will integrate existing efforts that are coordinating vaccine, therapeutic, and countermeasure development, including NIH’s ACTIV and RADx initiatives.
This week, HHS and DOD already announced new contracts to manufacture hundreds of millions of needle and syringe — needles and syringes here in America for distributing an eventual vaccine.
SECRETARY ESPER: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership of this bold and historic initiative. The Department of Defense is very excited and committed to working closely with our partners at HHS, across the government, and in the private sector to accomplish the mission we have been given. 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.
You know, the Department of Defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to January. We’ve stayed ahead of the curve every step of the way. And today, on America’s streets, across the nation, over 60,000 service members from all branches of the service are still out there. Whether it’s doctors and nurses in hospitals, whether it’s National Guard on the streets of America, or the Corps of Engineers continuing to build out capacity in America’s hospitals, we are there and we will be there, Mr. President. And we look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight against the coronavirus.
We were all in then, we are all in now, and we will be all in in the future, and we will deliver on time, bringing the full weight to bear — the full weight of the Department of Defense, all of our first-class, world-class researchers and scientists, our ability to manage logistics at scale, and our great distributional capabilities.
Q Is there a global competition to develop this vaccine? Like if France develops it first, will they share it with us?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, if — and we have that very well worked out. Whoever gets it is going to be very proud to give it and develop it — they’ve developed it. And we’ll see what happens. We’ve got countries that are allies that are — we have some countries, frankly, that aren’t allies, where we’re working very closely together.
So we’re working together with many different countries. And again, we have no ego. We have no ego. Whoever gets it, we think it’s great. We’re going to work with them; they’re going to work with us. Likewise, if we get it, we’re going to be working with them. So it’s very important.
Q And then what happens if China is the country that develops the vaccine? What happens if it’s China? Will the U.S. still have access to that vaccine?
THE PRESIDENT: I would say the answer to that would be yes. I would say the answer would be yes.
Yes, go ahead, please.
Q Can you clarify: Do you mean a fully approved — do you mean a fully approved vaccine for everyone?
THE PRESIDENT: You — excuse me, you’re going to have to remove it. You can’t hear through your mask.
Q Do you mean a fully approved vaccine for the entire general public, or a partially approved vaccine for emergency use?
THE PRESIDENT: What did she say?
SECRETARY AZAR: (Inaudible) vaccine or not.
Q Let me go to the mic. Sorry. Let me repeat that now I’m closer to the mic. Do you mean a fully approved vaccine for everyone? The full public? Or a partially approved vaccine with emergency use?
THE PRESIDENT: No, we’re looking for a full vaccine for everyone that wants to get it. Not everybody is going to want to get it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: But we’re looking at a full vaccine. Is that a correct statement?
SECRETARY AZAR: Yeah. We’ll —
THE PRESIDENT: Please. Yes.
SECRETARY AZAR: So the answer is — the answer is yes. We’re working for a fully approved vaccine, but we’ll also use the tools we have — for instance, emergency use authorization — as appropriate. We use all of our regulatory tools to bring vaccine available for the entire American population by January.
THE PRESIDENT: So, India has been so great. And, as you know, your — your Prime Minister has been a very good friend of mine. I just got back, a short while ago, from India recently. And we’re working very much with India too. And we have a tremendous Indian population in the United States. And many of the people that you’re talking about are working on the vaccine too. Great scientists and researchers.
Yeah, we’re working very closely also with India. Correct. And say hello to your Prime Minister.
Q Sir, do you have a plan to prevent the spread if you — if your reopen the schools?
THE PRESIDENT: We do. We do. We have a great plan to prevent the spread, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to close our country for five years. Okay? Not going to happen.
Q Do you have any indication that they could be lower than that?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know. If they were, I’d be very happy if they were lower. I’d like to see numbers lower. I’d like to see no death at all. One death is too many. This should have never happened. This came from China. It should have been stopped in China before it got out to the world. We have 186 — it’s been updated this morning — 186 countries are affected.
And each country that’s affected is the same thing. Russia now is badly affected. France is badly affected. You look at what each country — and you can say “affected” or you can say “infected,” either way you want to put it.
But you look at these countries. Look at Italy and you look at Spain and you look at all of these great countries, in many cases, how they’ve — how they’ve had to fight through this. It’s a terrible thing that happened. It could have been stopped at the source. It should have been stopped right at the source, but it wasn’t.
Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Full speech here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vaccine-development/
.
THE PRESIDENT: And I have to say, we’re also very, very much involved in other things other than the vaccine. If you take a look at what we’re doing beyond vaccines, it’s going to be very interesting and we may talk about that in a little — in a little while.
.
.
DR. SLAOUI: Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon everyone. It’s a great honor and a privilege for me to have the opportunity to serve our country and the world in this remarkable endeavor — extraordinary endeavor — helping them and supporting them to do it.
The Operation Warp Speed’s objectives are very clear. The President has described them. And I believe they are very credible. I also believe they are extremely challenging. However, I am really confident that our team across the many governmental agencies that are involved in these efforts — the NIH, the CDC, the FDA, ASPR, and, of course, with the support of the Army — and our partners in the private sector, we’ll be able and we’ll do the utmost to deliver these objectives.
GENERAL PERNA: Good afternoon, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you for this great honor for allowing me to be a part of this team. I’m very excited about this team. It will be historic as we execute the mission that’s been given to us. I also feel very confident that the team will be able to provide the results as directed. It is going to be a Herculean task, but the combination of the two main partners — between Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense — their combined strengths, partnered with the other teammates, will ensure our success.
One of the great advantages that we have as a military is our ability to do logistical and sustainment operations afar. We’re just going to apply those capabilities to this mission. This mission is about defeating the enemy. We will defeat the enemy. Why? Because winning matters.
And I’m excited to be a part of this team. And, Mr. President, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, General. We appreciate it. (Applause.)
SECRETARY AZAR: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership of this historic effort. Your vision for Operation Warp Speed, setting a goal of a vaccine by January 2021, will be one of the great scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in human history.
We started work on each of these areas in January, and Congress has provided nearly $10 billion explicitly for this kind of research and development effort. Operation Warp Speed will integrate existing efforts that are coordinating vaccine, therapeutic, and countermeasure development, including NIH’s ACTIV and RADx initiatives.
This week, HHS and DOD already announced new contracts to manufacture hundreds of millions of needle and syringe — needles and syringes here in America for distributing an eventual vaccine.
SECRETARY ESPER: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership of this bold and historic initiative. The Department of Defense is very excited and committed to working closely with our partners at HHS, across the government, and in the private sector to accomplish the mission we have been given. 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.
You know, the Department of Defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to January. We’ve stayed ahead of the curve every step of the way. And today, on America’s streets, across the nation, over 60,000 service members from all branches of the service are still out there. Whether it’s doctors and nurses in hospitals, whether it’s National Guard on the streets of America, or the Corps of Engineers continuing to build out capacity in America’s hospitals, we are there and we will be there, Mr. President. And we look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight against the coronavirus.
We were all in then, we are all in now, and we will be all in in the future, and we will deliver on time, bringing the full weight to bear — the full weight of the Department of Defense, all of our first-class, world-class researchers and scientists, our ability to manage logistics at scale, and our great distributional capabilities.
Q Is there a global competition to develop this vaccine? Like if France develops it first, will they share it with us?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, if — and we have that very well worked out. Whoever gets it is going to be very proud to give it and develop it — they’ve developed it. And we’ll see what happens. We’ve got countries that are allies that are — we have some countries, frankly, that aren’t allies, where we’re working very closely together.
So we’re working together with many different countries. And again, we have no ego. We have no ego. Whoever gets it, we think it’s great. We’re going to work with them; they’re going to work with us. Likewise, if we get it, we’re going to be working with them. So it’s very important.
Q And then what happens if China is the country that develops the vaccine? What happens if it’s China? Will the U.S. still have access to that vaccine?
THE PRESIDENT: I would say the answer to that would be yes. I would say the answer would be yes.
Yes, go ahead, please.
Q Can you clarify: Do you mean a fully approved — do you mean a fully approved vaccine for everyone?
THE PRESIDENT: You — excuse me, you’re going to have to remove it. You can’t hear through your mask.
Q Do you mean a fully approved vaccine for the entire general public, or a partially approved vaccine for emergency use?
THE PRESIDENT: What did she say?
SECRETARY AZAR: (Inaudible) vaccine or not.
Q Let me go to the mic. Sorry. Let me repeat that now I’m closer to the mic. Do you mean a fully approved vaccine for everyone? The full public? Or a partially approved vaccine with emergency use?
THE PRESIDENT: No, we’re looking for a full vaccine for everyone that wants to get it. Not everybody is going to want to get it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: But we’re looking at a full vaccine. Is that a correct statement?
SECRETARY AZAR: Yeah. We’ll —
THE PRESIDENT: Please. Yes.
SECRETARY AZAR: So the answer is — the answer is yes. We’re working for a fully approved vaccine, but we’ll also use the tools we have — for instance, emergency use authorization — as appropriate. We use all of our regulatory tools to bring vaccine available for the entire American population by January.
THE PRESIDENT: So, India has been so great. And, as you know, your — your Prime Minister has been a very good friend of mine. I just got back, a short while ago, from India recently. And we’re working very much with India too. And we have a tremendous Indian population in the United States. And many of the people that you’re talking about are working on the vaccine too. Great scientists and researchers.
Yeah, we’re working very closely also with India. Correct. And say hello to your Prime Minister.
Q Sir, do you have a plan to prevent the spread if you — if your reopen the schools?
THE PRESIDENT: We do. We do. We have a great plan to prevent the spread, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to close our country for five years. Okay? Not going to happen.
Q Do you have any indication that they could be lower than that?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know. If they were, I’d be very happy if they were lower. I’d like to see numbers lower. I’d like to see no death at all. One death is too many. This should have never happened. This came from China. It should have been stopped in China before it got out to the world. We have 186 — it’s been updated this morning — 186 countries are affected.
And each country that’s affected is the same thing. Russia now is badly affected. France is badly affected. You look at what each country — and you can say “affected” or you can say “infected,” either way you want to put it.
But you look at these countries. Look at Italy and you look at Spain and you look at all of these great countries, in many cases, how they’ve — how they’ve had to fight through this. It’s a terrible thing that happened. It could have been stopped at the source. It should have been stopped right at the source, but it wasn’t.
Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Full speech here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vaccine-development/
