Story at a glance

  • “I think that we can have some confidence and have faith in what the FDA is saying. They're saying very explicitly that they're going to be making the decision based on the scientific data and we hope that's going to be the case,” he said.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked state governors last week to prepare for large-scale distribution of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1, two days before the general election.
  • The move has prompted speculation that the agency is under pressure by the Trump administration to approve a vaccine before Election Day.

The nation’s leading infectious diseases expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser Anthony Fauci says people shouldn’t be concerned that politics are influencing the production timeline for a coronavirus vaccine as the presidential election nears. 

During an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto Thursday, Fauci said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been explicit about making a decision on a vaccine based on the data that comes in from phase three clinical trials.

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“These trials have these independent data and safety monitoring boards that intermittently look at the data,” Fauci said. 

“Those data will ultimately become public. And so, I mean if there is the kind of thing that people are concerned about it’ll become public sooner or later. So I think that we can have some confidence and have faith in what the FDA is saying. They’re saying very explicitly that they’re going to be making the decision based on the scientific data. And we hope that’s going to be the case,” he said. 

Fauci’s remarks come as Pfizer announced it could have results from late-stage trials showing whether or not its vaccine is safe and effective as early as October. 

Fauci said it’s possible a vaccine could be approved as soon as November or December, but said it is “unlikely, not impossible” that one could come out in October. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked state governors last week to prepare for large-scale distribution of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov.1, two days before the election.  

The move has prompted speculation that the agency is under pressure by the Trump administration to approve a vaccine before Election Day. 

“Too much of the evidence points to the Trump administration pressuring the FDA to approve a vaccine by Election Day to boost the President’s re-election campaign,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “This raises serious safety concerns about politics, not science and public health, driving the decision making process.”

But on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar pushed back against speculation the Nov. 1 deadline is linked to the election. 

“It has nothing to do with elections. This has to do with delivering safe, effective vaccines to the American people as quickly as possible and saving lives,” Azar told CBS This Morning.

“We are producing millions of doses of commercial-grade vaccine...and God forbid we get great data, and it comes out of the data and safety monitoring board, and the FDA finds that it meets their standards, and we aren’t ready to distribute. So we need to be ready for all contingencies, and that’s why the CDC is doing this,” Azar said. 

Fauci has maintained for months that a vaccine could be found to be safe and effective before the year is out, but has noted it would not likely become widely available until early 2021.

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Published on Sep 03, 2020