Vice President Mike Pence and other federal health officials sought to impress upon governors Monday the importance of boosting confidence in an eventual coronavirus vaccine as President Donald Trump continues to suggest one will be available before the election.
Speaking on a weekly conference call, Pence acknowledged the fraught political climate but said the vaccine conversation should be viewed separately — though Trump himself has publicly floated the possibility a vaccine is available before Election Day.
“I know we’re in an election season. Just as I have over the last seven or eight months, I’m leaving the politics outside,” Pence said on the call.
“We are working around the clock to get a safe and effective vaccine available for the American people but what we need is two things: No. 1, we need you to be ready to distribute it. No. 2, we need you to do your part to build public confidence that it will be a safe and effective vaccine. What we don’t want is people undermining confidence in the process,” he added.
Polls have shown the number of Americans willing to take a vaccine once it is available declining. A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation in September found a majority of Americans, 62%, believe political pressure from the Trump administration will cause the US Food and Drug Administration to rush approval of a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day.
Pence sought to dispel those concerns with governors — “No corners are going to be cut, ever,” he said — and asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, to lay out the vaccine approval process.
Fauci said multiple advisory panels would be consulted before a vaccine is approved, either for emergency use or a broader approval, and said all the scientific data would be made available for independent review.
“When we say that we feel confident that the process that has been put in place traditionally for making decisions as to the safety and efficacy of a vaccine are in place — and that’s the reason why I have said publicly that I feel confident,” Fauci said.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reiterated the appeal to governors to use their platforms to boost confidence in a vaccine.
“I don’t believe that access to the vaccine after the first of the year and into the beginning of the second quarter would be an issue,” he said, “but I am concerned, as the vice president stressed, about building public confidence.”
“Our biggest challenge, and what I would ask the leadership of each of you have, is to build that culture of confidence in vaccination,” he went on. “Once doubt sets in, it’s going to be very hard for us to reverse that in different populations.”
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