US FDA Finds There’s No Vaccine Against Politics

 
• By M. Nielsen Hobbs
  
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Instead of celebrating the EUA for Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID vaccine, officials at FDA and Operation Warp Speed once again have to answer questions about President Trump’s apparent interference in the process. But while Joe Biden isn't likely to rage-tweet about the agency, the incoming administration so far hasn't shown that much respect or understanding of FDA processes either.

Peter Marks and Stephen Hahn prepare for some tough questions at the beginning of the 12 December press conference on the EUA for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine. • Source: screenshot

There really was never much of a question about whether Pfizer Inc./BioNTech SE’s COVID vaccine was going to receive an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, but the question of when that was going to happen became dramatic on Friday morning when President Trump tweeted that FDA needed to “Get the dam vaccines out NOW. ... Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!”

The tweet was followed by news, first reported in the Washington Post, that Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had...

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