Top US Disease Expert Warns of Risk in Rushing For Coronavirus Vaccine - Report

As countries around the world are working on the manufacturing and production of COVID-19 vaccine, top US infectious diseases expert has put out a warning about the risks of rushing out a coronavirus vaccine. 

The warning about distributing a COVID-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective. 

As per CNN reports, scientists and health experts have expressed concern that US President Donald Trump will apply pressure on the country's Food and Drug Administration to come up with a vaccine before November to boost his chances of re-election. 

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently declined to comment on the president's statement and said there are risks in rushing out a vaccine. “The one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an EUA (emergency use authorization) before you have a signal of efficacy,” Fauci told Reuters in a phone interview. 

“One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial. To me, it’s absolutely paramount that you definitively show that a vaccine is safe and effective, both. We would hope that nothing interferes with the full demonstration that a vaccine is safe and effective,” Fauci added.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson last week said it hopes to include 60,000 subjects in its Phase III vaccine trial. Even, Trump had tweeted on Saturday that “deep state” elements at the FDA were delaying progress on drugs and vaccines until after the Nov. 3 election in order to hurt his reelection bid.

As the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 800,000 people worldwide, experts worry that the White House may apply pressure on the FDA to push out a vaccine before it has been fully tested. 

“I would be very worried about using an EUA mechanism for something like a vaccine. It’s very different from plasma therapy,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert and vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, CNN further reported.