FDA Head Refutes Trump On Timing Of Vax Approval

December 13, 2020 Trump Administration, Trump Lies

In an interview with Fox News Saturday, Trump, after seeming to take credit for the speed of the vaccine’s development, said that the Food and Drug Administration could have authorized the shot for emergency use “last week.” “They could have even done it a week sooner,” the president continued.

“We do not feel that this could have been out a week earlier,” Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We went through our process. We promised the American people that we would do a thorough review of the application and that’s what we did. We followed our process.”

FDA chief Stephen Hahn says skepticism about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine poses “a significant problem.”

“The way we get through this is to achieve herd immunity,” Hahn says, adding “we need to address their fears and concerns” with “transparency.” https://t.co/Glw9z6TUwV pic.twitter.com/gsMgTn9DP4

— ABC News (@ABC) December 13, 2020

NEW: “We do not feel that this could have been out a week earlier,” FDA chief Stephen Hahn tells @MarthaRaddatz when asked about President Trump’s claim that the COVID-19 vaccine could have been approved earlier. https://t.co/kEzanF2Ysi pic.twitter.com/cAtcDjWuVv

— ABC News (@ABC) December 13, 2020