Trump’s Risky Vaccine

It is clear that Donald Trump wants, needs, desperately requires an October surprise. This is the name in the U.S. for unexpected, sometimes legally questionable maneuvers that sitting presidents have used to gain last-minute votes right before an election during the first days of November.

Trump is betting on the surprise announcement of a vaccine to be distributed freely and immediately to millions of Americans. According to testimony from various sources, the White House has pressured the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for approving the vaccine, to provide “emergency authorization.” This would entail a less rigorous review of safety and efficacy standards.

One week ago, nine pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine development, aware of these pressures, issued a joint release pledging to “stand with science” and not release a vaccine to the public until it has met all the efficacy and safety standards required for any vaccine, including high-quality clinical trials. The statement was a message to Trump that his October date is not more important than the quality of the vaccine.

Yesterday, in his press conference announcing that the distribution plan is ready once the vaccine arrives, Trump discredited what the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had told the Senate that morning. The director announced that a vaccine would not be ready for general distribution until the middle of next year, even if the vaccine were approved and ready today. In the Republican president’s meeting with the press, he said that he had called the director after his appearance, and asserted that what he had said was “incorrect information.”

Yesterday, health agency officials also told the press that optimistically, if the vaccine is approved, it could be distributed to health workers and perhaps even some vulnerable groups by the end of this year and the beginning of next year.

Trump seems to be following in the footsteps of his friend Vladimir Putin and his Sputnik vaccine, which has been received with skepticism by the global scientific community despite the fact that Russian authorities have already approved it without reaching any conclusion as to its safety and efficacy trials.