FDA’s Hahn: Coronavirus Vaccine Authorization Based on ‘Science and Data’
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Sunday denied reports his agency was pressured by the Trump administration to get Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine authorized quickly, asserting authorization was based on a “thorough review of the science and data.”
“Our timeline, how we approached this was based upon our thorough review of the science and data,” Hahn said on CNN’s “State on the Union.” “That’s the promise we made to the American people, the transparency around that, and that’s what we did.”
On Thursday, an independent Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended the use of the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccine was later authorized for emergency use by the FDA on Friday after President Donald Trump tweeted at Hahn on Friday morning to “Stop playing games and start saving lives.”
“We needed to ensure that our gold standard of assessing the safety and the efficacy of vaccine was done and was done properly,” Hahn said. “We had to get this right. And I believe we did.”
