Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus working group, told “Special Report” on Monday that researchers should be aware of the efficacy of a possible coronavirus vaccine produced by the modern biotechnology company for “mid or late fall. “
The Massachusetts-based company began dosing participants in its phase III clinical trial on Monday morning.
“We will have 30,000 people in the trial, 15,000 will receive the vaccine, 15,000 will be [given] placebo, “Fauci told host John Roberts.” If you look at the accumulation and the accumulation rate … you could project that you will get an answer sometime in the middle or late fall, which would be November, which could be October.
“It is very difficult to predict.”
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Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, insisted that “no corners are cut” in the search for a coronavirus vaccine in response to claims that President Trump pushed for a vaccine to be available before November elections. .
“Security is very important and what we are doing is not compromising security and certainly not compromising scientific integrity,” Fauci said. “In fact, we report to the president today about this in the Oval Office and I have seen no political pressure to move quickly. The speed of the trial and the speed with which the results are obtained depend on certain factors. One is the number of infections that they occur in the context of the test to determine whether it works or not. “
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The Modern vaccine candidate directs cells in the body to express the SARS-CoV-2 peak protein to elicit a broad immune response. Fauci said the results of initial clinical tests, which showed that the vaccine candidate was safe and produced an immune response, left him “cautiously optimistic that we might have something here, but it will take a few months to determine whether or not we do it. “
“Fortunately, within a period of a few months, we will be able to get a signal to find out if it is actually effective in preventing coronavirus infection,” he added.
The vaccine efficacy trial is said to be the first to be implemented under Operation Warp Speed, a multi-agency collaboration led by the Department of Health and Human Services that aims to accelerate the development, manufacture and distribution of medical countermeasures for COVID-19.
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“It is an extraordinary circumstance,” Fauci said of the accelerated vaccine search, crediting improvements in technology that “have really transformed the way we conduct vaccine trials.”
“This is the fastest we have come,” he told Roberts, “since identifying a new virus and sequencing, receiving the vaccine, and entering the Phase III trial for its efficacy.”
Kayla Rivas of Fox News contributed to this report.
