A Really Great Interview with Dr. Fauci
It will come as no surprise that the Blog team is a fan of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The New York Times recently published a helpful and hopeful interview with Fauci. Here’s a little excerpt:
There are a number of vaccine candidates that are promising. But there’s also a lot of skepticism because we’ve seen the F.D.A. come under both commercial and, increasingly, political pressure. When will we know it’s OK to take a vaccine? And which?
It’s pretty easy when you have vaccines that are 95 percent effective. Can’t get much better than that. I think what people need to appreciate — and that’s why I have said it like maybe 100 times in the last week or two — is the process by which a decision is made. The company looks at the data. I look at the data. Then the company puts the data to the F.D.A. The F.D.A. will make the decision to do an emergency use authorization or a license application approval. And they have career scientists who are really independent. They’re not beholden to anybody. Then there’s another independent group, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. The F.D.A. commissioner has vowed publicly that he will go according to the opinion of the career scientists and the advisory board.
Read the full interview below.
