Trump announces public-private initiative to 'rapidly develop' coronavirus vaccine

President Trump on Friday afternoon announced the formation of a public-private partnership to develop a successful coronavirus vaccine at "record, record, record speed," possibly before the end of the year. 

The president made the announcement at a Rose Garden press conference, calling the partnership an "historic, groundbreaking initiative in an ongoing effort to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine."

Stating that the federal government had devoted $10 billion to support the "medical research effort without parallel," Trump called the undertaking "a massive scientific, industrial, and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has ever seen since the Manhattan Project," the government initiative that developed the Atomic Bomb near the end of World War II. 

The president said researchers had identified 14 candidates they considered promising for the ultimate development of a vaccine. Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser for the initiative, said at the press conference that recent efforts had made him confident that the project "will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of a vaccine by the end of 2020."

Slaoui said the project will also "focus on progressing and accelerating the development of medicines for those who have unfortunately already caught the virus." 

Though the vaccine may be as many as seven months away, the president expressed confidence that something resembling normal life might resume in the United States soon. "Vaccine or no vaccine, we're back," he said. 

Throughout some of the press conference, the sound of horns honking from outside the White House could be easily heard. Trump remarked at one point that the noise was from a group of truckers staging a pro-Trump demonstration in Washington. 

"That's the sign of love, not the sign of your typical protest," he said.