The White House is working with seven pharmaceutical companies as part of its "Warp Speed" coronavirus vaccine program, including a bet on a rapid-but-unproven genetic technology.

Bloomberg noted that "The companies include Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Moderna Inc., and the University of Oxford in collaboration with AstraZeneca Plc, as well as two other firms, according to two people familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump was briefed Tuesday on the latest details on the project, according to one of the people.

The New York Times first reported the White House’s selection of vaccine finalists on Tuesday, citing senior officials. Operation Warp Speed’s goal is to have some 300 million doses of a shot available by the end of the year. The program offers government resources to drugmakers involved, and could help speed trials by having pharmaceutical companies collaborate on those efforts."

While the U.S. Project Warp Speed looks very promising, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Russia is trying to get ahead of the U.S. Today Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia has developed the first coronavirus vaccine and said his daughter has taken it, local news agencies reported.

There is international skepticism that Russia has developed an effective and safe vaccine, and only time will tell whether this is propaganda or not.

The CNBC report further noted that "Putin announced the registration of what Russia claims to be the first vaccine against Covid-19."

Putin stated at a meeting with members of his government, that "As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world. Although I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks."

He also reportedly stated that one of his daughters was vaccinated against the coronavirus, commenting, “In this sense, she took part in the experiment.”

At the end of July, the World Health Organization said that there were 26 candidate vaccines in the clinical evaluation stage, including the one registered in Russia that was developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

Solutions to COVID-19 whenever they arrive will be welcome news for nations struggling with the pandemic. A viable vaccine will provide confidence in getting global economies back up to speed, workers back to work and Universities back to teaching.

Currently production of technology devices are close to back on track which should ensure that the all-important Q4 sales of products such as the iPhone 12 are not overly disrupted.

Thus far Apple has hinted of a slight delay in shipping the new iPhones. It's unknown at this time whether the slight delays are COVID-19 related or not. There was a report that there was a minor hiccup with one of Apple's camera lens suppliers and it's possible that 5G chips with millimeter wave were slightly delayed. Overall, Apple's main iPhone 12 devices appear to be on track.

Right now we have to hope that a strong second wave of COVID-19 this fall doesn't disrupt Apple's supply chain again. If there is a second wave, this is where Russia's vaccine may come into play in China if it's not pure propaganda.