President Trump on Saturday accused the ‘deep state’ of the Food and Drug Administration of making it difficult for drug companies to test coronavirus treatments – and suggested that the agency try to delay them until after election day.
“The deep state, or whatever, at the FDA makes it very difficult for drug companies to get people to test the vaccines and therapeutics,” he tweeted. ‘Of course, they hope to delay the response until after November 3. Must focus on speed, and saving lives! ”
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He also tagged FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in the tweet. Trump later tweeted a June Moments story that reported on the FDA’s decision to revoke authorization for emergency use of hydroxychloroquine – a drug that Trump has promoted as a “game-changer” in the pandemic.
“Many doctors and studies disagree here!” he said.
Trump has repeatedly called on agents to step forward with experimental treatments as part of an effort to move above the virus and reopen the country. But some in those agencies and other federal officials have been more cautious.
Trump’s tweet appears to be partly in response to a move by the FDA to stop the planned authorization for emergency use of blood plasma as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.
The FDA last week unveiled plans to allow emergency use of blood plasma. But The New York Times reported that the authorization is now pending after experts, including Drs. Anthony Fauci, said that evidence that support the movement was not strong enough.
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The FDA often approves emergency use authorizations during public health emergencies when there are no other adequate and available alternative treatments.
In May, Trump announced that the FDA approved emergency use of Gilead Science’s experimental antiviral drug inhibitor after early results from a clinical study indicated the drug helps accelerate coronavirus recovery. But it had also withdrawn authorization for hydroxychloroquine in June.
Trump has called plasma as a “wonderful ingredient” that can be used to improve the conditions of people suffering from the virus.
H. Clifford Lane, clinical director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Times that the authorization was pending further evidence, but that it could be granted in the very near future.
“The three of us are pretty much attuned to the importance of robust data through randomized control tests, and that a pandemic that does not change,” said Drs. Lane, referring to himself, Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
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Trump had a similar response when he asked on Wednesday in a White House press release about stopping the authorization.
‘Well, I hear great things about it [plasma]… That’s all I can tell you. And it can be a political decision, because you have a lot of people who do not want to rush things, because they want to do it after November 3rd. And you’ve heard that before, ‘he said.
Fox News’ Kayla Rivas contributed to this report.
