Fauci Walks Through Vaccine Development Process to Assuage Skepticism: ‘There Was No Compromise of Safety’

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Monday that people need to be following proper health safety guidelines going into Thanksgiving, while assuaging concerns about the vaccine development process.

Fauci again emphasized in an interview with the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that we’re already looking at concerning surges heading into the winter, and if millions of people travel for Thanksgiving and don’t follow proper guidelines, it may get worse heading into December.

“Help is on the way,” he assured, pointing to the vaccines on the way that will get distributed to high-priority and high-risk individuals by the end of December. “As we get into the subsequent months, more and more people will be able to be vaccinated.”

And with light at the end of the tunnel, Fauci said, people need to “hang in there with public health measures.”

He also made a point of addressing the speed at which vaccines were developed and walked through the entire process of how the vaccines are vetted by public health experts independent of politics:

“There was no compromise of safety, nor was there compromise of scientific integrity… The decision to say that this vaccine is safe and effective, the data are analyzed by a completely independent board… which in fact doesn’t have to answer to the administration, doesn’t have to answer to the company. They’re independent. They look at the data and they’ve said on both of these vaccines, both the Moderna and the Pfizer, that it is efficacious and it’s safe, and it protects you even against serious disease.”

“This is a solid process,” Fauci added. “When my turn comes up and the FDA says that this is safe and effective, I myself will get vaccinated and I will recommend that my family get vaccinated.”

You can watch above (the relevant portion starts around the 44-minute mark), via the Washington Post.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!