Trump accuses FDA, Pfizer of deliberately delaying vaccine news until polls


U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday accused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drug maker Pfizer and Democrats of conspiring to delay the announcement of progress on the coronavirus vaccine until last week’s election.

Pfizer Inc. It said Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine could be significantly 90 percent effective, based on preliminary and incomplete test results, which eventually led to a big explosion of optimism in a desperate world aimed at controlling the catastrophic outbreak.

The announcement comes less than a week after the election, which is seen as a referendum on Trump’s downfall, killing more than 1.5 million people worldwide, including nearly a quarter of a million in the United States alone.

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Despite the good news early on Monday, Trump posted a series of tweets later on Monday, and Pfizer and U.S. He was accused by the Food and Drug Administration of waiting until news of his positive vaccine was announced for political reasons.

“As I have said for a long time, Pfizer and others will only announce the vaccine after the election, because they did not have the courage to do it before. Likewise, this
@ The USFDA should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but to save lives.

“@US_FDA and Democrats didn’t want to vaccinate me WIN before the election, so instead it came out five days later – as I said with all!” He added.

Pfizer insisted that his work was not influenced by politics and that it was “moving at the speed of science.” The company only reported interim results on Sunday after its independent data monitors met to discuss them. The FDA was not involved in Pfizer’s decision to release its preliminary results and did not make any announcements of its own.

Pfizer initially chose not to join the Trump administration’s Operation Operation, which helped fund half a dozen vaccine manufacturers’ research and manufacturing scale-ups. Pfizer instead said it has invested પોતાના 2 billion of its own in testing and expanding production capacity. But in July, Pfizer, believing the vaccine had been cleared by the FDA, sent. 1.95 billion to the U.S. with 100 million doses. Signed a contract to supply.

Pfizer said the only involvement in the pace of its Operation Operation Warp is that the dose is part of the administration’s goal of preparing 300 million doses of the COVD-19 vaccine next year.

Senior Vice President of Clinical Development Dr. “We’re potentially in a position to offer some hope,” Bill Gruber told the Associated Press. “We are very encouraged.”

Pfizer, which is developing the vaccine with its German partner Bioentech, is now preparing to apply for emergency-use approval from the FDA later this month, after receiving essential safety information within a month.

Even if all goes well, officials have insisted that more vaccines arrive before the end of the year, and a limited initial supply will be rationed.

U.S. The government’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fawcett said the results indicating 0% efficacy were “just extraordinary”, adding: “A lot of people didn’t think it would be that great.”

“It will have a big impact on what we do in terms of covid,” Fuui said, while Pfizer appeared to be leading the global competition for the development of a well-tested vaccine against the virus by pharmaceutical companies and various countries. .

This May 4, 2020, file photo, provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, shows the first patient enrolled in Pfizer’s COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore (University of Maryland School of Medicine). P. File by, file)

World Health Organization Senior Advisor Dr. By March, when the UN agency begins vaccinating high-risk groups, Pfizer’s vaccine could “fundamentally change the direction of this crisis,” said Bruce Elward.

Global markets, already buoyed by President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, rallied on Pfizer’s news. The S&P 500 ended the day with a 1.2% strength, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 800 points. Pfizer stock rose more than 8%.

However, Monday’s announcement certainly doesn’t make sense that the vaccine is imminent: in this interim analysis by the Independent Data Monitoring Board, U.S. And in a study of about 44,000 people registered in five other countries, 94 infections have been reported so far. .

Some participants received the vaccine, while some received dummy shots. Pfizer released no specific breakdown, but for the vaccine to be 90% effective, almost all infections must occur in placebo recipients. The study is ongoing, and Pfizer warned that the defense rate could change as more COVID-19 cases are added to the calculation.

Earlier during Trump’s presidential campaign, he repeatedly suggested that the vaccine could be ready by election day, he tweeted: “Stock market UP Big, Vaccine Coming Sun. Report 90% effective. Very good news! “

Biden, for his part, welcomed the news but warned that the U.S. It could be several months before vaccination becomes widespread, and he warned Americans to rely on masks and social distance in the meantime. He said the country was still facing a “dark winter”.

Pfizer Production Line for COVID-19 Vaccine (ScreenCapture / YouTube)

U.S. The infection confirmed in 100 million eclipses on Monday, the highest in the world. New cases are running at an all-time high of over 100,000 every day. With the onset of cold weather and the holidays, there are fears of thousands more deaths in the coming months.

U.S. The Pfizer vaccine is one of the four candidates who have already undergone major studies in India, with more being tested in other countries. Another US company, Modernna Inc. But hopes to apply with the FDA later this month.

Both company shots are made with a brand new technology. This “mRNA vaccine” is not made from coronavirus, which means that no one is likely to catch it from a shot. Instead, the vaccine contains a portion of the genetic code that trains the immune system to recognize spike proteins on the surface of the virus.