this risk, we will effectively end this phase of the pandemic and allow seniors to reclaim their golden years. the golden years of their lives, which is so incredible. and it's about time they can have those golden years. again, this process is starting right away. millions of doses will soon be going out the door. they are already. waiting for that final approval. as soon as waiting for that final approval. as soon as april, the vaccine will be available to the entire general population, with the exception of places like new york state, where for political reasons the governor decided to say, and i do not take it as good politically, i think it is bad from a health standpoint, but he wants to take his time with the vaccine, he doesn't trust worthy vaccine's coming from. these are coming from the greatest companies anywhere in the world, greatest lads in the world, but he does not trust the fact that it is this white house, this administration, so we will not be delivering it to new york until we have authorisation to

do so and that pains me to say that. this is a very successful, amazing vaccine, and 90% and more, but so the governor, governor cuomo, will have to let us know when he is ready for it. otherwise you cannot be delivering it to a state that won't be having it to its people. and i know many, i know the people of new york very well, i know they want it, so york very well, i know they want it, so if the governor will let us know when he is ready, he has has a very bad editorials recently about this and that this statement and what has happened with respect to nursing homes and his handling of nursing homes, and i hope he does not handle this as badly as he has handled the nursing homes, but we are ready to provided as soon as they let us know that they will use it. and again, it isa very that they will use it. and again, it is a very safe and great vaccine. already we have among the lowest case fatality rates, our country, anywhere in the road, the entire world, and we have performed significant better than our pure

countries. as far as therapeutics are concerned, my administration has already made critical investments in therapies that have helped reduce therapies that have helped reduce the mortality rate by 85%. that is to be one of the most exciting things, it's incredible, some of the antibody vaccines and others that have come out and have really helped people — 85%. last month, the fda approved remdesivir and we have secured enough remdesivir to treat 850,000 patients. we purchased the first doses of eli lilly's anted —— antibody... this will be free of cost. 5000 units of art he been shipped and many more going out the doors as we speak. we've also reached an agreement with astrazeneca for the la rge—scale manufacturing of their antibody treatment, which is excellent, we

expect to issue emergency use authorizations for a number of additional treatments in the near future stopped amended as promised, the remember the 85% number, that is an incredible number —— in the near future. we have tremendously promising drugs online and ready to come out. we have ensure that our front—line workers have all the tools they need. my administration has invokes the defence production act and related authorities over 100 times and have made an historic investment into our industrial base. all states the requested ppe from the federal government have received the federal government have received the ppe almost immediately upon request. every american who needed a ventilator has had access to a ventilator. think of that. every cop located piece of okra meant, very expensive, and we have not had one person in this whole country that has requested or needed a ventilator that has not had it —— very complicated piece of equipment. every request has been a neatly filled, so that was something there

was a greatjob, and we are helping the rest of the word with ventilators because it's a very hard thing. we are producing thousands of ventilators a month. the federal government has when he does thousand beds -- 22,000 —— 22,000 beds immediately, but we think it is going to start going down, possibly very quickly, we will see what happens, but with the vaccine, you will see numbers going down within a matter of months and it will go down very rapidly. as we continue to combat the virus, our economy is rebounding far beyond any expectations. the stock market is up almost afforded point again today and it is ready to break the all—time record. ourjobs records are incredible, the job all—time record. ourjobs records are incredible, thejob numbers all—time record. ourjobs records are incredible, the job numbers are incredible. in the last six months, we have created over 13 millionjobs and slash the unemployed rate by more than half. last quarter, we witness the fastest economic growth ever recorded in the history of our country, 33.1%. a number that is

more than double our highest number that was a 1952, and we have more than doubled it. the united states of periods the smallest economic contraction and the most rapid economic recovery of any major western nation. we went down lesson we went up more, which is quite a culmination of facts. while healthy americans have gone back to work into school, we to spare no expense to protect the elderly and the vulnerable. according to some estimates, and national lockdown cost $50 billion a day and hundreds of thousands of jobs cost $50 billion a day and hundreds of thousands ofjobs every single day. ideally we won't go to a lockdown. i will not go, this administration will not be going to administration will not be going to a lockdown. vocally the whatever happens in the future, who knows which administers and it will be, i guess time will tell, but i can tell you this administration will not go to elect him. there will not be a

necessity. lockdown cost lives and they cause a lot of problems. the cure cannot be, you have to remember, worse than the problem itself. i've said it many times. when you look at what happens during a lockdown, ijust say very loudly, it is horrible what happens, with drugs, alcohol, depression, loss of jobs, business closures, it is a terrible thing. so this administration will not go under any circumstances to a lockdown but we will be very careful. we understand the disease. it is a comp located disease but we understand it very well. we ask all americans to remain vigilant, especially as the weather gets colder and it becomes more difficult to go outside and to have outside gatherings, and with that, i just want to ask some very talented people to come up and say a few words. general... have been

incredible. the general is really concerned right now, but he, will we don't know, he started putting this altogether six months ago, and you're going to see action. if off? and then we are going to finish it off with mike pence. please. thank you, off with mike pence. please. thank you, sure. off with mike pence. please. thank you, sure. thank you, mr president. operation warp speed's mission is to enable and accelerate the developing of vaccines and therapeutics to help control the covid—19 pandemic and save lives. on may 15, almost six months ago to the day, we stated the goal of the operation, which was to have vaccines and therapeutics available and approved for use in the us population by the end of the year 2020. we said then that, while

very challenging, the goal was credible and therefore is worth trying our best to achieve it. today, we are on the six month later, and i think we can say that significant progress has been made. and while we are not there yet, we are and while we are not there yet, we a re close and while we are not there yet, we are close to the objective. let me share with you some facts. if i look at the vaccine side, we have selected the portfolio of six vaccines, using three different platform technologies, and we elected to have two vaccines from each platform. first platform is what is called messenger rna and his two vaccines using the platform were in the portfolio, one by pfizer and one by more —— muh —— moderna. in the second one, we

had one from] and] and the other for metro seneca. the third one, one vaccine from a company here in the us and another one from a partnership between. partnership these us and another one from a partnership these vaccines are now, six vaccines, in the clinical did stages and four of them —— phase three trials. two have effectively completed enrolment in the phase three trial and one of the two was announced on monday, thrilling information, that they had 90% efficacy — that was the pfizer vaccine — demonstrating that vaccination is possible against covid—19, but the kind of choices we made in terms of the antigens selected was effective and made us optimistic that other vaccines may also be effective. on wednesday, the

same week, just this wednesday, moderna, the other company using similar platform technology, messenger rna, they announced they had achieved a number of cases in the trial to allow for a first... i would expect that, shortly, reveille next week, we may hear what i hope be another very good next down night information regarding an efficacious vaccine —— probably next week. the trials using the life vector platform, the j+j trials using the life vector platform, thej+j and astrazeneca vaccines, have... iwould like platform, thej+j and astrazeneca vaccines, have... i would like to ta ke vaccines, have... i would like to take this opportunity to invite as many americans as possible to volunteer to purchase debate in these clinical trials, as that is these clinical trials, as that is the only way we are able to a demonstration the efficacy of these vaccines —— to participate in. the

last two vaccines are plans to start their clinical trials within the next few weeks. while we are developing these vaccines, we have not only looked at the clinical to filament, and partnership of the companies that are the sponsors for the vaccines —— clinical develop it. we also invested in the manufacturing of these vaccines in such a way as to, when we have the clinical efficacy demonstration with these vaccines, we would also have vaccine doses to be able to immunise the us population. so the two vaccines that are completing their phase three trial are likely to be filing their files with the fda for potential emergency use authorisation within the next few weeks, and hopefully, if approved, they could be used for immunisation in us population in the month of december. and we have, we plan to

have, enough vaccine doses available for use in the us population to immunise about 20 million individuals in the month of december, and another 25—30,000,000 per month on an ongoing basis from there on, and as of the month of february or march, if we have more vaccines approved, such as the life vector vaccine, we may go to immunisea vector vaccine, we may go to immunise a larger number of americans. on an ongoing basis per month. operation warp speed did not only focus on vaccines. we also looked at therapeutics and we have worked with a number of companies developing antibodies, in particular that are able to neutralise the virus. as mr president said, we have announced partnerships with eli lilly, with

regeneron and astrazeneca... the regeneron and astrazeneca... the regeneron antibodies have been filed for emergency use and is potentially reaching approval within the next few weeks. and finally, astrazeneca just in the last few days has received a green light to start two large phase three trials with their antibodies, supported by operation warp speed, to prevent the acquisition of covid—19 disease in very frail subjects or in very high risk subjects. as a protective, alternative to a vaccine. so, potentially, two vaccines and two therapeutics may be granted an emergency use authorisation before the end of this year. i think it is a remarkable achievement within a

period of six to seven months. it is important to note that this progress has been achieved without any political interference. i said it many times. and at every step, it has been and is being judged by independent expert bodies, whether it is when the fda grants the green light to go into clinical trials or whether when the data safety monitoring boards review the safety of the studies on an ongoing basis and sometimes put them on hold, as i am sure you have witnessed, with the astrazeneca vaccine, for instance, and the same data safety monitoring boards are the same experts that analyse the efficacy of the vaccines and the safety of the vaccines until the companies whether they should progress with the filing of an emergency use authorisation or not. so it is not the companies, it is

not operation warp speed, it is not the us government, it is independent experts that assess the safety and the efficacy of the vaccines that are being tested. and when the fda will review these vaccines, and these therapeutics, they will also have the advice, public advice, from boards, the advisory board to vaccine reviews, after review of the data, transparently and available for everybody to look into, before the fda then makes his decision to either authorise a vaccine or not authorise it. on that basis, i personally feel very comfortable to say that the vaccines and the therapeutics that we have helped developed and accelerate will be judged independently, and if approved, should be used by all in the population, because i believe

vaccination is likely to be the cornerstone among all the other measures that we have to take to help us really control this pandemic. i will now pass to my co—leader, who will tell you more about the support the operation has provided to manufacturing of the vaccine and also to their distribution. thank you very much. mr president, thank you for allowing me to continue service of our great nation as the co—leader on this mission. let me start by emphasising, for me, what is operation warp speed about? it is about saving lives, and it is a herculean task the president put us on many months ago and we are making steady progress and we are ready to execute. through the whole of american approach, we have leveraged the best of nation federal

government, local, states, industry and academic to expand capacity and capability, to achieve our mission. it has been powerful. with s on the best contracting, logistics and planning experts available, to secure nice and integrate all phases of the operation, from development of the operation, from development of the operation, from development of the vaccine, manufacturing of the vaccine and finally, distribution of the vaccine —— to synchronise and integrate. six months ago, the capacity did not exist in our nation's for musical production base. we went to work building brick—and—mortar manufacturing facilities, bringing in the right specialised machinery and equipment and prioritising supply—chain materials through the defence production act. today, we expect to have tens of millions of doses immediately following eua and we

will distribute them as soon as the fda applies the eua. we will do that within 24 hours of the ua. we are harnessing the strength of commercial industry and existing vaccine delivery capabilities and infrastructure. our nation deserves this. vaccines will be allocated pro rata by population so that we ensure fairand rata by population so that we ensure fair and equitable across. we need the states who are part of the planning to accept the vaccine. 0k, so that is just about coming to the end of this conference. that is a general speaking about the distribution channels for a potential vaccine and therapeutics involved in operation warp speed. this is the programme that's been developed to increase and enable the

developing of therapeutics and vaccines. lebo diseko has been listening in. what did you make of that? what will instruct me from what president trump said was, at that point when he started talking on lockdowns and the fact that he would not be locking down the country at all, he says, whatever happens in the future, who knows? that is the first time i've really heard any kind of even a nod to the possibility that, actually, some of the us might be in charge after january, so —— some but he also might be in charge. we will see whether he continues on that fated all. it was interesting what he had to say, trying to take credit for the achievement of pfizer. they announced some quite hopeful results in terms of their vaccine a few days ago. he was really keen to say that they had received funding from operation warp speed. pfizer has

said they have not, they were not pa rt said they have not, they were not part of operation warp speed. but they seem to have received is advanced purchasing. they do not get paid until they receive those vaccines if the agreement, and that is the big thing. —— if the agreement. the vaccine does not have the green light for the fda, so they are not a done deal, there are still are not a done deal, there are still a few stages to go through. 0k, lebo, we are going to leave it there for now. thank you very much. i'm nowjoined by denise clay, who is an independentjournalist based in philadelphia. thank you very much, joining us from the state of pennsylvania. i do not know a few heard what was said in that conference, does that reassure you talking about the number of vaccines, president trump spoke about how quickly this has been rolled out? he has been contacted by the leaders of other countries, it can be disturbed and very quickly,

five times faster than normal —— distributed to read, very quickly. were you reassured by that? to be honest, the problem that i have and that most americans are going to have with everything the president just said is the fact that when you have had someone lie to you as much is donald trump has lied to the american people, not onlyjust regarding this virus but also just regarding this virus but also just regarding his entire administration, it is hard to believe anything that comes out, especially when you take it into consideration that he is saying this as a lame duck president. now, ithink saying this as a lame duck president. now, i think that folks would have a little less of a time being sceptical, be a little bit less sceptical about this, if we could see some of the medical data

ourselves. it was nice that the head of operation warp speed said, we have had, no one has interfered with us, and it is nice that the general has said no one has interfered with us, but like i said, the american people have had almost four years of donald trump and a nice chunk of the time that we have been dealing with the coronavirus, this is a man who has pooh—poohed science, who has a straight up light about various things regarding testing and contact tracing... denise, i want things regarding testing and contact tracing... denise, iwant tojump in there. because we also heard from a doctor, who said, we are not being led here by politics, this is hard science, we are working with the drug companies. this is not a political thing that is happening right now, in terms of the therapeutics and the vaccinations.

you sound as if americans are directional —— directionless when it comes to covid—19. is there fatigue? where are you getting your information from? i am getting my information from? i am getting my information from just observing how this admin assertion has handled this over the last years. like i said, i would like to believe, and most americans would like to believe, that the scientist is right, that this has not been interfered with and every thing like that, and, sure, we would like to believe that, but you are going to have to forgive us for being a little sceptical considering how this crisis has been handled since it came to the president's desk back in january. 0k. since it came to the president's desk back in january. ok. so you're going to have to forgive us for being a little bit sceptical here. 0k, being a little bit sceptical here. ok, let's talk about events in philadelphia. describe the atmosphere and how people are

feeling. there has been protests in the city. what is going on? right now, everybody is, we are dealing with our own personal outbreak of the coronavirus, the number of cases. . . the coronavirus, the number of cases... ijust got the coronavirus, the number of cases... i just got some the coronavirus, the number of cases... ijust got some information from our department of health that sent over 1500 new cases of the coronavirus had hit just sent over 1500 new cases of the coronavirus had hitjust the city of philadelphia. about to reinstitute some lockdown measures that we had gotten rid of midsummer, kind of loosening things up, because of what is going on. part of that is probably because there has been protests of all kinds going on out here. we had the protest of the shooting of walter wallace junior here. we had the protest of the shooting of walter wallacejunior by our police, shortly before the elections, then we had the election protests themselves, and then there we re protests themselves, and then there were the impromptu dance parties that were happening over the weekend

when pennsylvania was declared, declared joe biden the winner of the state's election and the 20 electoral college votes that went with it. so right now, we are kind of trying to figure things out. 0k. but i'm going to go back of the debate... if you can only make it quite brief? we've only got about 20 seconds. we want to believe the scientists, but you got to allow us to bea scientists, but you got to allow us to be a little sceptical here, because it is what it is. it is what it is. i love that american phrase! denise clay, thank you very much indeed. that was denise talking to us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. just something of her reaction and probably the reaction of many americans following a conference held by president trump in the rose

garden, with the latest details about operation warp speed. don't go away. coming back shortly. hello again. the afternoon brought us a mixture of sunshine and showers. the majority of the showers were across the western areas of the uk, but there were a few that snuck through the central belt into eastern scotland, bringing the chance of catching a rainbow. for example, this one framing the forth bridge there quite nicely. further southwards, we have some high cloud working in and that brought us rather spectacular halo pictures. this one was sent to us by head in the clouds from hertfordshire. that high cloud that caused the halo, is all tied in with our next weather system that just to the west of the uk at the moment, and this is our next area of low pressure that's going to be moving in just in time for the weekend. now, looking at the weather as we go through this evening, we've got plenty of showers,

particularly across western areas of the country. these are going to tend to merge together to give longer outbreaks of rain progressively as the night goes on. southerly winds bringing milder air, so by the end of the night, those temperatures will be rising across southern areas. 13 degrees as we head into the first part of saturday morning there in plymouth. now, the weekend is unsettled. we have that area of low pressure to come through. that's often going to be bringing windy weather, and we'll see several spells of rain pushing north and eastwards across the country as well, so it is going to be pretty wet. the rain quite heavy at times, too. saturday getting off to a wet start for many of us. now, there will be a few areas that start off dry, perhaps northern scotland, some areas of eastern england, too, but you can see these various areas of rain will be working northwards and eastwards as the day progresses. it's also going to be pretty windy around the irish sea coast, so for wales and western england, we could see some gust getting up to 50 odd miles an hour, so very blowy. brighter spells for a time across eastern areas of england, some drier spots through the central belt of northern scotland, too, but most of us will see rain at times. a mild day, temperatures 13 in belfast, 15 in both london and cardiff.

the second half of the weekend, low pressure still with us, still bringing outbreaks of rain which could loiter in scotland and northern ireland, perhaps the far north of england. plenty of showers potentially merging together to give some lengthier outbreaks of rain, and again, it's going to be windy but this time, the strongest winds will be working through the english channel coast, where we could get gusts of around 50—60 mph or so across those southernmost areas of england. and fresher air will be working in on sunday. you'll notice the change, just slightly cooler weather through the afternoon.