"Johnson & Johnson Says It Hopes To Deliver 1 Billion Coronavirus Vaccines Next Year"

"A Johnson & Johnson executive said the company’s goal is to deliver 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine next year. The company’s chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels joined ABC’s This Week to explain that Johnson & Johnson is increasing its manufacturing and preparing for clinical trials in September, and hopes to start developing the vaccines at the end of the year. 'We are upscaling manufacturing, and we start producing in the late year with the aim to deliver 1 billion vaccines next year,' he said Sunday. 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos asked Stoffels if hoping for a vaccine by the end of 2020 was 'realistic.' Stoffels said it depends on the speed of the clinical trials and how the FDA evaluates the new vaccine. Stephanopoulos asked if it was possible for the disease to go away without a vaccine, as President Trump has recently suggested. 'We are hoping it will pass without a vaccine because that would be great if the disease goes away very quickly,' Stoffels replied, 'but we don’t think so.' 'It’s now spreading around the world so fast and so significant that they will need a vaccine to control it,' he said."