Excerpt: "Fauci again said he was optimistic that a vaccine is possible this year, and later gave a forceful denunciation of a study - touted by President Trump - that claimed the drug hydroxychloroquine has saved the lives of coronavirus patients."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. (photo: Al Drago/AP)
ALSO SEE: Vaccine Candidate Delivers Protection in a
Single Shot (in Monkeys)
31 July 20
n opening remarks at a hearing before the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious-disease specialist, again said he was “cautiously optimistic” that a safe and effective vaccine is possible this year.
“We hope that as the time we get into the late fall and early winter we will have, in fact, a vaccine that we can say would be safe and effective,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. “One can never guarantee the safety or effectiveness unless you do the trial, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
The Phase 3 trial just launched for a vaccine candidate being developed by biotech company Moderna in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Fauci said that as of Thursday night, 250,000 people have volunteered to take part in the clinical trials.
Under questioning, Fauci said no corners were being cut in developing the vaccine at this speed and that a goal of early next year is “realistic.”
To some people, he said, “it seems like it is so fast that there might be compromising of safety and efficacy — that is absolutely not the case.”
Scientists were able to move quickly compared to past vaccine development, he said, because “of very different technology” and because of the way the human body responds to this virus.
