Vaccine Coming 'In Record Time,' Trump Says During Daily Briefing

MORRISVILLE, NC — President Donald Trump addressed the progress made on vaccines during his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, which was held on the road as he toured the Bioprocess Innovation Center in North Carolina. The president again praised his administration's approach to the coronavirus pandemic, saying once more a vaccine will arrive "in record time."

"We will defeat the virus," Trump said. "We will deliver it (the vaccine) in record time."

Specifically, he said one could be ready with billions of doses by the end of the year.

The declaration came on the same day it was announced that final-stage testing would indeed begin on an expiremental coronavirus vaccine. Volunteers have already begun taking the vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., at 89 sites across the country.

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Trump said Monday four other "promising candidates" are expected to enter final trials soon, including one that operates at the North Carolina facility from which he addressed reporters and local officials.

The president took credit for saving lives, insisting that he was responsible for closing things down as the start of the pandemic. Now, he says "a lot of the governors should be opening up states that they are not opening."