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U.S. expert calls for more transparency about COVID-19 vaccine development

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2020-09-23 09:37:24CGTN Editor : Jing Yuxin ECNS App Download
Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

The American people's faith in the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine has fallen to record low due to the politicization of the issue, Dr. Ashish K Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote in an article published on Time magazine.  

A recent survey found that only half of them said they would get the vaccine as soon as it was available, he wrote, calling for "unprecedented transparency" on the vaccine issue during "unprecedented times." 

"With just weeks until the election, the pressure on the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to quickly approve a vaccine will mount. But the more the timeline is politicized, the more vaccine hesitancy will grow," he wrote.  

Increasing politicization of key regulatory bodies and unexplained decisions in trial procedures threaten to undermine the entire vaccine project that the Trump administration has spent 10 billion U.S. dollars, he pointed out.  

"The public's faith in the vaccine development process is a critical component of the vaccine, because vaccines don't save lives, vaccinations do," he argued.  

He believes only transparency can stem the tide of skepticism, and called on the FDA to rigorously follow the science before approving the vaccine.  The FDA has failed to do so when handling the authorization of hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, among others during the epidemic, driven by political pressures, he noted.

"We need a lot more transparency in this process to ensure that only a vaccine proven by data to be safe and effective will be approved," he wrote.  

Companies making the vaccines and the researchers studying the data also need to make public critical documents such as the protocols of their clinical trial and analysis plan and results, he added. 

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