The director of the National Institutes of Health is urging the public to set aside skepticism regarding the coronavirus vaccine.
Dr. Francis Collins said the rate at which a vaccine was developed for the novel coronavirus was “astounding” but emphasized that the significantly condensed timeline for the vaccine’s production should not fuel anti-vaccine conspiracies.
“It is indeed astounding in just the space of some 11 months we’ve gone from a recognition of a new pathogen to a vaccine that we know is safe and effective,” Collins said during an interview on Meet the Press. “I would like to plead to people listening to this morning to really hit the reset button on whatever they think they knew about this vaccine that might cause them to be so skeptical.”
The Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech’s two-stage coronavirus vaccine on Friday. During a Saturday press conference, Gen. Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer for the Department of Defense’s Operation Warp Speed, said 145 sites across the country will receive the newly authorized vaccine on Monday.
Collins stressed that the measures Pfizer and BioNTech took while testing the vaccine’s effectiveness and the FDA’s review of the data are evidence that despite the speed at which vaccines have been produced, it did not involve cutting corners or a politicization of the development process. President Trump has claimed he “saved five years in the approval” of a coronavirus vaccine and lambasted the FDA as a “big, old, slow turtle.”
“If you look at the facts, the way these things were designed, tested in phase one and phase two and then very large phase three studies — 44,000 people in the Pfizer trial — and then this careful analysis by objective scientists who are the only ones who first get to see the unblinded data,” Collins said. “Then it goes to the FDA, then it’s reviewed in a public setting. I think there have been few, if any, vaccines that have ever been subjected to this level of scrutiny. So if you want to look at the facts, I think you should be very reassured.”
“Put aside all of the noise,” Collins added. “I’m talking out of knowledge of having been totally immersed in this 100 hours a week since last January.”
