While the mainstream media will be reluctant to give President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed the credit it deserves, the vaccine will be delivered by the millions at no cost to patients, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Newsmax TV.
"I lived it: I heard everyone telling the president and me: '18 months at the most optimistic; it can't be done,'" Azar told Tuesday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "But this is where the president really shows his leadership. He challenges the status quo.
"The experts say something, he says, 'no, that's not good enough.'"
Azar noted to host Greg Kelly his experience with the drug industry was instrumental in removing the research and development cost and "risk," using "the whole power of the government" in ostensibly a vaccine "Manhattan Project."
"We took the risk away that slows down the drug industry, because I am uniquely positioned, knowing how the drug industry works and thinks as a business," Azar said. "I knew the key lever.
That was "risk" of testing and costs for something that might not work. But, it all worked out for America, Azar noted, and the drug companies did not have to bear the risk or the costs.
"We have the full power of the U.S. government," Azar said. "We can de-risk that. We can invest so that we fund all of the development planning, all the clinical trials, all the enrollment sites. Everything right up front so we can move from one phase to the next in literally hours.
"We took away all that risk for them, so we can achieve these results."
Azar is waiting in line for his time to receive the vaccine, but he vows to do it on television as a proof of confidence in it.
"I wouldn't ask them to do something I wouldn't do myself," he said.
As for the next developments in vaccinating Americans amid the global coronavirus pandemic, Azar noted with just the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines the following supply amounts include:
- 20 million by end of December.
- 50 million by end of January.
- 100 million by end of February.
And, Azar noted, by the end of February or early March, everyday Americans will be able to get their COVID-19 immunizations at their local drug store at no cost.
"Not a penny," he said. "Donald Trump told you: You will not pay for the vaccine or the administration of this vaccine."
The vaccines en route from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson might even add to the supply timetables above and speed up the shots for most Americans this winter, he said.
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