Fauci will oppose any rush to herald COVID-19 vaccine

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force, pledged on Thursday to publicly oppose any effort by the Trump administration to rush an announcement of a COVID-19 vaccine by the November election unless the medicine has been proven “safe and scientifically sound.”

In an interview with McClatchy, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he disapproved of the use of the term “Operation Warp Speed” – the name of the federal vaccine development project — because it incorrectly implies that critical scientific benchmarks for safety and effectiveness might be sidestepped in a rushed government effort to achieve a vaccine.

And he offered a different view from an op-ed published this week by Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the coronavirus task force, which dismissed concerns over an increase in coronavirus cases in several U.S. states as “overblown.”

“When I see an increase in cases that is not fully explainable in my mind, I get concerned,” Fauci said when asked about the Pence statement. “I get concerned by an increase in cases even when it is explainable, because if you look at the curve of cases in the United States, and look at the total country, that is not a sharp decline by any means.”

President Donald Trump has pushed the Department of Health and Human Services to expedite its work on a vaccine, already set against the unprecedented timetable of achieving one by the end of the year, so that the public can glimpse an end to the pandemic ahead of the November presidential vote.

“Take that to the bank,” Fauci said when asked by McClatchy whether he would oppose any administration effort to announce a vaccine by November if it is not ready. “There is no chance in the world that I’m going to be forced into agreeing to something that I don’t think is safe and scientifically sound. I’ll guarantee you that.”