COVID-19 has brought the world to a halt. Millions are currently stuck at home hoping day by day that life would return back to normal. Countries across the globe are racing to develop and produce a vaccine for the deadly virus. Japan is planning to launch their COVID-19 clinical trials in two months. China has also joined the race to find a formula to impede the spread of this contagion but have not announced when they are expecting trials to be finished.

The European Medicines Agency has said that a cure could be readily available within a year. But with the virus pummeling economies and claiming almost 300,000 lives to date, it seems that we need to have a vaccine ready before the year ends.

Operation Warp Speed

President Trump has announced a new plan of action known as "Operation Warp Speed" which is an aggressive effort to accelerate development of the COVID-19 vaccine. The administration expects a vaccine to be available in the market by the end of 2020 with a few hundred million doses ready to be delivered. In short, the main objective is to develop, manufacture, and distribute to the entire American population by January 2021. This vaccine will give the nation it's much needed confidence in fully reopening the economy.

The project will begin with studies on 14 potential vaccine candidates and will be narrowed down further to around three or four in the final round of tests.

The President has also revealed the team to head this "Herculean" task. Moncef Slaoui, former head of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine department will take the position of chief adviser and Army General Gustave Perna, the commander of the US Army Material Command has been assigned as the chief operating officer and will manage logistics.

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The race is on

Slaoui has admitted that getting a vaccine ready within 12 months for distribution is already a colossal task but insists that he is very optimistic and would never have agreed to lead the operation if he did not believe that it was achievable. Slaoui was once the chairman of global research and development in which he helped in developing a vaccine for cervical cancer, shingles, and infantile rotavirus.

The President has announced that the US is open to working with other countries, even China, in order to speed up test trials. The government is also expected to increase vaccine supplies such as vials, syringes, and even storage facilities and that every soldier, plane, and truck should be ready for deployment in order that the vaccine can be distributed quickly once it is available.

Operation Warp Speed is just one of the COVID-19 response projects the government has undertaken. Further efforts have been put into place to ramp up daily testing. The country now does an average of 300,000 tests per day, nearly double the 150,000 tests performed in the month of May.

At the moment, there are two goals that need to be achieved. First is to find a treatment that can cure those who are already affected and second is to successfully produce a vaccine that can protect billions of people from contracting COVID-19.