Fauci: Nyet so fast on Russia vax
Don’t expect Dr. Anthony Fauci to line up for a shot of Russia’s alleged new coronavirus vaccine.
The top US infectious-diseases expert threw cold water on Moscow’s purported inoculation after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that it already had been approved.
“I hope that the Russians have actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they’ve done that,” Fauci told Deborah Roberts of ABC News for a National Geographic event that will air Thursday.
Fauci, 79, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that having a vaccine and proving it is safe and effective are two different things.
“We have half a dozen or more vaccines,” he said. “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, you know, next week if we wanted to. But that’s not the way it works.”
Fauci said Americans must keep in mind that the United States has safety and efficacy standards in place — while the makers of the Russian vaccine have not yet released any data from human trials.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was looking forward to reviewing details of the Russian trials, adding it is in touch with Russian scientists and authorities, CNN reported.
There are 28 potential vaccines now in human trials worldwide, according to WHO.