The Safeguards That Helped Ensure Politics Didn’t Influence the Vaccine Process
To coincide with the U.S. vaccine rollout, Elemental has published an extremely thorough guide to Covid-19 vaccines, answering every question we could think of. Elemental will continue to update and add to this FAQ as the rollout and FDA authorization process continues. If you would like to submit a question, leave a response at the end of the story. Here’s a peek at one of the questions inside.
Q: How can I be sure that the process of the vaccine’s development and approval wasn’t inappropriately influenced by political interests?
After evidence surfaced of the Trump administration’s meddling at the CDC, and given the criticism of the administration pressuring the FDA to grant an EUA to hydroxychloroquine (which was later revoked), it’s reasonable to have concerns about political influence in the Covid vaccine development process. Fortunately, several safeguards in the vaccine approval process — even for an EUA — are reassuring.
“One of the things that I point out is that yes, there have been instances [in the history of vaccine development] where scientists have been unethical, and these safeguards are in place to really limit the ability of any one scientist in being unethical,” said [Michele] Andrasik [PhD, director of social and behavioral sciences and…
