Speaking for the first time since Election Day, President Donald Trump touted progress on a Wuhan coronavirus vaccine and gave on update on Operation Warp Speed from the White House Rose Garden.
"In the past nine months my administration has initiated the single greatest mobilization in U.S. history, pioneering therapies and vaccines in record time. Numbers like nobody's seen before. No medical breakthrough of this scope and magnitude has ever been achieved this rapidly and this quickly," Trump said. "Operation Warp Speed is unequaled and unrivaled anywhere in the world."
Earlier this week Pfizer announced their vaccine showed a 90 percent success rate in trials and is now awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Once approved, President Trump said the military is ready to distribute millions of doses of the vaccines to states across the country, with the nation's vulnerable populations receiving it first. Twenty-million doses may be distributed by the end of December, with less vulnerable populations receiving the vaccine by April 2021.
As a result of Operation Warp Speed, Pfizer announced on Monday that its vaccine is more than 90% effective!
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 13, 2020
"In July, my Administration reached an agreement with Pfizer to provide $1.95 billion to support the mass manufacturing and distribution of 100 million doses." pic.twitter.com/KYI6qu2oly
President Trump also said under his administration, the U.S. won't be going into another lockdown.
"This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the, whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration will be. I guess time will tell, But I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown," he said.
