Trump: Work on vaccine biggest project since World War II

The whole world is looking for a vaccine against the novel corona virus - including the United States. President Trump praises the American project with all sorts of superlatives. But when does a preparation come? And will there be global wrangling over it?

Washington (dpa) - US President Donald Trump is driving the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus in the United States and speaks of the greatest effort since World War II.

"There has never been a vaccine project like this in history," Trump said in Washington on Friday. "Since the Second World War, nobody has seen anything like what we do in our country now. Incredible." It is a massive scientific and industrial effort. Work on a vaccine is running at "record-record-record-pace".

Trump's government has launched a project called "Operation Warp Speed" to advance the development of a vaccine against the corona virus. The name comes from the fictitious "warp drive" in the "Spaceship Enterprise" series, which can fly faster than the speed of light on television.

The US President said again that the goal is to develop a vaccine by the end of the year, maybe a little earlier or a little later. As soon as there is such a preparation, the military will also be involved in organizing the rapid distribution of the vaccine in the country. "We are preparing. It is risky, it is expensive, but we will save a lot of time. We will save years if we do it right."

Trump promised that the United States wanted to work closely with other countries on this issue, regardless of who found the first vaccine. "We have no ego in this regard." If the United States were to find a drug first, it would share it with others. And if another country came across it first, the United States would work with that country. When asked whether it would bother him if other countries developed a vaccine faster than the United States at the beginning of May, Trump had already stressed: "If it is another country, I will take my hat off to them."

However, the intensive search for a vaccine has recently caused tensions internationally. The top manager of the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, for example, caused widespread outrage with comments about a possible preference for the United States for a future corona vaccine in France. Head of state Emmanuel Macron also intervened in the debate on Thursday. The 42-year-old is committed to a coordinated and multilateral response so that a possible vaccine is available to everyone as a public good. This was said from circles of the Paris Presidential Office. The vaccine must be removed from the "logic of the markets". There should be a meeting with Sanofi next week.

Sanofi director general Paul Hudson triggered the irritation with an interview. He has made it clear that the US has priority over the vaccine, the US financial news agency Bloomberg reported. Because the United States was the first to support research. The agency had quoted the Sanofi top manager on Wednesday as "the right to make the largest pre-order," the agency said. The French company later promised to offer everyone a future vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The Brussels EU Commission emphasized that there should be no differences between countries when it comes to accessing a coronavirus vaccine. The Covid-19 vaccine should be a public good worldwide, a spokesman said. Access must be "fair and general".

MEPs spoke out in favor of guaranteeing access to the coronavirus vaccine if necessary through so-called compulsory licenses. Legally, it is possible to manufacture medicines and vaccines without the express approval of the original manufacturer in the EU, the health spokesman for the EPP Group, Peter Liese (CDU), emphasized in a plenary debate on Thursday. If a vaccine is first developed in the United States or China, the EU must do everything to ensure that the vaccine is actually available to all countries.

In March there was also a dispute between Berlin and Washington over a Tübingen vaccine company. According to reports, the United States wanted to acquire exclusive rights to a corona vaccine from the company.