vials with Covid-19 Vaccine stickers attached, with the logo of US
pharmaceutical company Pfizer, on November 17, 2020. JUSTIN TALLIS
/ AFP
Leading American infectious disease scientist Anthony
Fauci criticized Britain on Thursday for rushing through its
approval process for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine,
suggesting the move could undermine public faith.
His comments came a day after Britain became the first Western
country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for general use, prompting
some skepticism among the country’s European neighbors and
suggestions that the process was politicized.
Widely-respected Fauci, who leads the US National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News on Thursday: “In all
fairness to so many of my UK friends, you know, they kind of ran
around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last
mile.
“I think that would be a good metaphor for it… because they
really rushed through that approval.”
He contrasted Britain’s regulator with the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), which he called “the gold standard of
regulation.”
“They’re doing it in a very careful way, appropriately, because
if we did anything that was cutting corners and rushing, we have
enough problem(s) with people being skeptical about taking a
vaccine anyway,” he said.
“If we had jumped over the hurdle here quickly and
inappropriately to gain an extra week or a week and a half, I think
that the credibility of our regulatory process would have been
damaged.”
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Fauci added “I love the Brits” and said he had respect for the
country’s scientists.
“But they just took the data from the Pfizer company and instead
of scrutinizing it really, really carefully, they said, ‘OK, let’s
approve it. That’s it,’ and they went with it.
“In fact, they were even rather severely criticized by their
European Union counterparts who were saying, you know, ‘That was
kind of a hot dog play.’”
British ministers claimed Brexit had allowed them to adopt the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine ahead of their neighbors, who are still
awaiting a green light from the European Medicines Agency
(EMA).
Britain is still under EU drug marketing rules until December
31, the end of a post-Brexit transition period, but has approved
the vaccine under an emergency provision in European law.
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn, addressing a videoconference
of his EU colleagues, said Wednesday: “The idea is not to be first,
but to have a safe and efficient vaccine.”
“It is a matter of expertise, obviously, authorization. But as
we’ve seen from comments from the UK, it’s also a political issue
for the European Union,” he added.
AFP