There has been a bit of controversy about the COVID-19 vaccine with the presidential election coming up. While it seems that there isn’t much coverage on the COVID-19 vaccine when compared to political news nearing the election, there are dozens of vaccines in development all around the globe.
It was back in July that the first COVID-19 vaccine was being prepared for final testing. Dr. Anthony Fauci and his colleges developed this first experimental vaccine for the coronavirus at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. This vaccine required two doses, each one month apart. 30,000 subjects were included in this study, and a few months later in July, things were looking good. People all around the United States were ecstatic to hear some news after having been in quarantine for already over half a year. But, as we continue in the year, a set date has still not been cleared.
During the opening remarks to the Senate HELP Committee, FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn M.D. cleared up some of the decisions that deterred some Americans from expecting a vaccine in the next few weeks. Dr. Hahn clarified that all decisions made by the FDA were done so by FDA scientists and are “based on science and data, not politics.”
Past tweets by the commissioner also reiterate the FDA’s stance on rushing the COVID-19 vaccine and state, “One of the agency’s highest priorities is ensuring the quality, safety and effectiveness of vaccines. This deep and abiding commitment is something that we consider essential to engendering the public’s trust in vaccines.”
Dr. Hahn clarified that the FDA would not approve or authorize any vaccine before it has met all the expectations they have been set for safety and effectiveness. Recent news has shown administration officials speaking up about how the President has been focusing on speeding up the vaccine in time to release before the presidential election on Nov. 3 this year.
Other Americans were more worried about President Trump’s claims of a COVID-19 vaccine than excited. After President Trump reported that both he and his wife tested positive for COVD-19 on Oct. 2, scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine in Russia pushed their vaccine into the spotlight. The Sputnik-V vaccine is a coronavirus vaccine created in Russia and was licensed for domestic use back in August without any data to back it up. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are in charge of such licensing and there are no reports of the U.S. asking for help with the vaccine from Russia. The vaccine trials that took place in Russia had results that were considered questionable by other researchers due to repetitive trends, which are uncommon in such data.
Other groups of scientists believe that human trials are not enough when compared to previous vaccine trials. Testing for vaccines is commonly done on monkeys and now primate researchers have begun pushing a monkey study to help in the forming of a safe COVID-19 vaccine. Such trials could promise results about what kinds of side effects may occur much sooner than in the human trails.
At the moment, all that can tell what will occur with a COVID-19 vaccine is time. For the most up to date news on the vaccine, here is a good place to get your daily update.
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