(2 Mar 2020) President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet are meeting at the White House with executives of 10 pharmaceutical companies to learn ways to speed the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. Today, there are no proven treatments.
In China, scientists have been testing a combination of HIV drugs against the new coronavirus, as well as an experimental drug named remdesivir that was in development to fight Ebola.
In the U.S., the University of Nebraska Medical Center also began testing remdesivir in some Americans who were found to have COVID-19 after being evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan.
It's not clear how quickly such studies will answer whether any of the drugs help.
Vice President Mike Pence also attended the Monday afternoon meeting. He says other meetings are being arranged with leaders of airlines and cruise ship operations.
At the meeting, Trump said he was happy to hear how quickly companies could start testing a vaccine, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases emphasized that deployment of a vaccine is going to be at the earliest, a year to a year-and-a-half.
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