Trump Now Claims 'Every American' Could Have Coronavirus Vaccine By April 2021

President Trump on Friday said "every American" will have a vaccine for the coronavirus available by April 2021, escalating already ambitious goals to fast-track a vaccine for the virus that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States.

Trump also told reporters during a Friday briefing that distribution of a vaccine will begin within 24 hours of its readiness.

"I think distribution will go even quicker than most people think," Trump said.

The timeline for when a vaccine can reasonably be expected has been a point of contention within the federal government.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a Wednesday testimony to the Senate said a vaccine against the coronavirus likely would not be available for widespread distribution until next summer or fall.

Trump later that day re-upped his pledge that a vaccine could be ready as soon as October and said that Redfield, a 30-year veteran in the field of virology and infectious disease, had "misunderstood" and "made a mistake" in his assessment of a vaccine's timing.

Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's coronavirus vaccine initiative, has six different vaccines at various stages of clinical testing, but faces enormous challenges in getting them approved and distributed. [Copyright 2020 NPR]