With Donald Trump trying beat down the ‘experts’ at the FDA and CDC everyday and them getting abuse from the media and others….
The FDA and CDC bosses are trying to ‘do the right thing’ and cover their rears before the vaccines hit the public…
They need to hold on till Biden arrives….
The stakes are high: polls show the relentless politicization of the race to develop a vaccine is taking its toll. Pew Research Center recently reported that the percentage of people who said they would get the vaccine if it were available today has dropped to just over 50 percent from 72 percent in May….
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The new guidance is just one way of trying to shore up confidence in the agency. FDA allies, intent on building trust, are also spotlighting agency career scientists, noting that the one overseeing the vaccine-approval process has threatened to quit if he is pressured to greenlight a vaccine before he is convinced it is safe and effective.
But, administration critics note, such efforts are undercut on an almost daily basis by overly rosy and contradictory comments by Trump and continued revelations about administration actions to strong-arm government scientists and regulators and curb their independence….
*Update…
Trump gets desperate….
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the White House may not approve tougher FDA guidelines for authorizing the emergency use of any coronavirus vaccines.
“That has to be approved by the White House,” Trump said. “We may or may not approve it.”
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Trump’s repeated promises that a vaccine is imminent contradict top government health officials who say that a shot won’t be ready until late 2020 at the earliest, and that it will take months longer to get it to all Americans. The president’s hard charge for a vaccine has prompted fears that his administration will rubber-stamp a shot based on political calculations rather than scientific data….