Trump takes tour of virus vaccine development site

President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic put his political fate in grave jeopardy. Now he's hoping to get credit for his administration's aggressive push for a vaccine -– and crossing his fingers that one gets approved before Election Day.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited vaccine development sites on Monday, marking the beginning of the largest vaccine research trial yet. Their trips to North Carolina and Florida, respectively, come as the White House is grappling with its most prominent virus case since the crisis begin and a nationwide spike in the virus.

Under the federal government's Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, multiple COVID-19 vaccines are being developed simultaneously with a goal of delivering 300 million safe and effective doses by January 2021.

Trump was visiting the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies' Innovation Center in Morrisville, a suburb of Raleigh. The facility has begun production of the first batch of a possible vaccine developed by Novavax, a Maryland company.

The batches produced at the North Carolina facility will be used in a Phase 3 clinical trial of up to 30,000 subjects, which is expected to begin this fall and will determine the drug's safety and effectiveness, according to Novavax, which received $1.6 billion from the federal government under Operation Warp Speed.

The president is working to highlight progress in the development of a vaccine before voters go to the polls in about three months. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said he is cautiously optimistic that one and maybe more vaccines will be available by the end of this year.