The nation’s top infectious disease expert said Friday that an aggressive investment into the development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus might make it possible to distribute millions of doses as the year comes to a close.
In an interview with The Hill, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), urged caution and said the rapid development of a safe and effective vaccine was not guaranteed.
But he said the government was taking the unprecedented step of beginning production on promising vaccine candidates even before they are proven, a financial risk that would shave months off a typical development schedule. Continue reading.
You may have noticed, of late, a distinct change in the Trump White House pandemic strategy. Out are the pandemic briefings because somebody finally convinced Trump they were making him look bad; in are Trump economic advisers making implausible claims on the Sunday shows. Out are the government medical experts, the ones who kept making news by not entirely agreeing with Trump’s every bizarre new medical invention. (Take malaria medication! Drink bleach!) In is the newest White House press secretary putting on surly Fox & Friends-styled briefings declaring President Awesomedude to have done 12 brilliant things while nobody was looking, all wedged invisibly between the day’s angry tweets.