New US “Vaccine Czar” Says January Is A “Credible Goal”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Fri, 05/15/2020
Update (1330ET): As expected, Friday’s press conference introduced four-star general Gustave Perna, and former Pharma exec Moncef Slaoui who have joined “Operation Warp Speed” to help lead to government-backed effort to develop a vaccine.
Specifically, Slaoui, will serve as the new “vaccine czar” – a term the White House has asked journalists not to use.
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Slaoui, chairman of vaccines at GSK, who will lead the new program, says a vaccine by January is still a possibility.
“Frankly, 12-18 months is already a very aggressive timeline,” Mr. Slaoui said. “I don’t think Dr. Fauci was wrong.”
But Mr. Slaoui said he was undaunted by the president’s goal.
“I would not have committed unless I thought it was achievable,” Mr. Slaoui said, adding that he told the president that when he met with him for the first time on Wednesday at the White House and Mr. Trump asked if the goal was realistic.
The NYTimes reminds us that – as Trump announced last month – Operation Warp Speed aims to produce 300 million doses of a vaccine by January, a goal that’s been almost universally panned as unrealistic.
Unsurprisingly, it seems the man who got the vaccine czar job was the one who most willingly told the president what he wanted to hear – that the january goal is “doable”.
The president announced the effort, which he called Operation Warp Speed, with the goal of having 300 million doses of a vaccine available by January, a number that would likely be needed to halt the spread of the pathogen, an unheard-of timeline to develop, test and produce a vaccine on such a scale.
The Warp Speed project has been described by administration officials as an organizing mechanism for an already fierce race to find a vaccine, one that involves big pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and a handful of government agencies.
Slaoui will serve as the chief adviser on the effort, and Gen Perna will be the COO.
The two men reportedly met for the first time on Wednesday, and they have been in frequent contact since then, the general said in a separate interview. They will have offices in the Department of Health and Human Services, where the secretary, Alex M. Azar II, helped devise the program at Mr. Trump’s request.
Slaoui said he discussed the job with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who had been searching for a so-called czar for therapeutics and vaccine development, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator.
General Perna, who runs the Army’s complex supply chain, said that he was asked by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to help run the manufacturing logistics related to the vaccine development.
The two men just met, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was heavily involved in bringing Slaoui on, while JCS Chairman Mark Milley recommended Perna.
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The time has come to defend yourselves one and all. A large group of NAZIFUCKERS in this country need to be schooled with regard to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When some two-bit piece of shit like that NAZI FUCK up in Washington State declares “you can’t grocery shop” unless…. That’s a direct threat against people’s right to exist, time to put a stop to it.
Good Luck.