Two of the frontrunners in the global race for a coronavirus vaccine are unlikely to be ready before the US election on November 3, dashing President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of delivering doses by the time of the vote.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said Wednesday that the company will not have enough data to file for emergency use authorization of its vaccine candidate until November 25, weeks after Americans go to the polls.
Public health experts have expressed concern that the Trump administration is expediting the development process, undermining the safety and efficacy of a future vaccine.
In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump said he had spoken to the major vaccine makers, including Moderna, and that they told him a vaccine could be available soon.
Nobody,” he said, adding that the earliest Moderna’s candidate could be available for public use is late March or early April next year.
Meanwhile, drugmaker AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine trial in the United States is still on hold after a participant developed a serious illness, but, speaking at the US Pharma and Biotech Summit hosted by the Financial Times on Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner would not say why.
There are currently nine Covid-19 vaccine candidates in late-stage, large clinical trials around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
The World Health Organization said dozens of vaccines worldwide are in human trials.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has hit back at the President, saying his early opinions about mask use were “taken out of context. ” Fauci explained that “very early on in the pandemic,” public health experts did not recommend masks to the general public because they were worried about shortages.
