Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is apprehensive about the effectiveness of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine.
During a National Geographic panel discussion, ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts asked Fauci about Russian President Vladamir Putin’s announcement that his country had acquired regulatory approval for the world’s first coronavirus vaccine.
The top infectious disease expert expressed concern about Putin’s newly-touted vaccine despite its regulatory approval.
“Having a vaccine and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things,” Fauci said. “We have half a dozen or more vaccines. So, if we wanted to take the chance of hurting a lot of people, or giving them something that doesn’t work. we could start doing this next week if we wanted to but that’s not the way it works.”
He also expressed doubt about the safety of the drug and its overall effectiveness.
He later added, “I hope that the Russians have actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they’ve done that.”
See Fauci’s remarks below:
Concocting a #COVID19 vaccine is not the same thing as proving a vaccine is safe and effective. "We have a way of doing things in this country that we care about safety and we care about efficacy," says Dr. Fauci https://t.co/mjUQt5Ep13 pic.twitter.com/ijlFmhTXC9
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) August 11, 2020
Fauci’s latest remarks came hours after Putin’s announcement. Like, Fauci, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb also expressed doubt in Russia’s vaccine.
He tweeted, “Russia was reported to be behind disinformation campaigns to sow doubts in U.S. about our COVID vaccines; and today’s news that they “approved” a vaccine on the equivalent of phase 1 data may be another effort to stoke doubts or goad U.S. into forcing early action on our vaccines.”
Russia was reported to be behind disinformation campaigns to sow doubts in U.S. about our Covid vaccines; and today’s news that they “approved” a vaccine on the equivalent of phase 1 data may be another effort to stoke doubts or goad U.S. into forcing early action on our vaccines https://t.co/WR6xPkFcfJ
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) August 11, 2020
While countries around the world are racing to develop an effective vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Fauci has also weighed in on the possibility of the United States having an effective vaccine according to the president’s projected timeline.
On multiple occasions, Fauci has made it clear that he is cautiously optimistic about an effective vaccine being made available in the United States by the end of 2020, as previously reported on IJR.
“Hopefully there will be doses available by the beginning of next year,” Fauci said. “These are things that we feel aspirationally hopeful about and we will continue to pursue this.”
