slaoui vaccine czar

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</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/conservatism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/conservatism/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">common dr</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">What is a conservative? We've seen a lot of them in 2020, refusing to respect the needs of society.

The Heritage Foundation <a href="https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/what-conservatism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">says</a>: "Foremost among [conservatism's] transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force." Stanford University <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">adds</a>: "For conservatives, individuals and local communities are better assessors of their own needs and problems than distant bureaucrats." A 2003 study for the American Psychological Association <a href="http://www.sulloway.org/PoliticalConservatism(2003).pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">stated</a>: "The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality." There are many other forms and definitions of <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">conservatism</a> as political, economic, and social philosophies. The usage here may best be understood as the <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/the-new-right-is-not-a-reaction-to-neoliberalism-but-its-offspring/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">evolving</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-4-431-55181-2_5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">marriage</a> of individualism and neoliberalism (privatization, deregulation, low taxes, austerity) since the 1970s.Conservatism has made 'social' a dirty word. Here are some of the details of fifty years of damage inflicted on America.The Disastrous Effect of Placing Individuals Over Society

The anti-government, "all about freedom" individuality of conservatives has failed terribly in a time of national emergency. How did the misdirected mindset get its start? With Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who are commonly referenced with connection to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">neoliberalism</a>. Friedman is the author of some remarkable <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/69390-when-unions-get-higher-wages-for-their-members-by-restricting" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">quotes</a>: "The free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people." And, according to guk The Guardian: "There is evidence that a democratic society, once established, destroys a free economy."

Then came Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The former UK Prime Minister <a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a> about society: "There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families."Reagan, whose campaign slogan was, familiarly, "Let's make America great again," famously stated that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government IS the problem."

So now, at a time when we need to work together as a society rather than as a crowd of individuals, we've been betrayed by conservatism. As historian Neil J. Young <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/952636/reagans-shows-roots-americas-individualism-problem" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">puts it</a>, "Now, 40 years later amid a global pandemic, that unbridled individualism has shown its deadly dimensions in Trump and the Republicans' lack of response to COVID-19...it's evident in the millions of Americans who—in refusing to wear masks, practice social distance, and momentarily deny their self-gratification—have selfishly exploited the language of 'individual responsibility' as license for their own recklessness."

Just as frightening is the recent conservative Supreme Court church-gathering <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/26/religious-freedom-supreme-court-blocks-covid-limits-n-y-churches/3767379001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">decision</a> that "placed religious freedom before pandemic precautions."

Deregulation and Subsidies: Corporations Running Rampant

The euphemistically-named <a href="http://www.citizensunited.org/what-we-do.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Citizens United</a> (CU) is an example of the deceptive measures used by conservatives. CU refers to an initiative that "seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security." But it helps corporations, not citizens, by allowing unlimited funding for corporate-friendly candidates.

Conservatives argue for less government intervention—except when it comes to subsidies. Leading the pack of favor-seeking <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lobbyist</a> groups is the pharmaceutical industry. Few companies have benefited more than Pfizer, whose former CEO Ian Read once <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/11/25/pfizer-allergan-ian-read/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">complained</a> that U.S. taxes had his company fighting "with one hand tied behind our back." In <a href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/78003/000007800320000014/pfe-exhibit13x12312019.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2019</a> Pfizer made nearly half of its $17.7 billion in profits in the U.S., yet the company claimed $1.8 billion in federal and state tax refunds. And it takes from America in another way. In recent years Pfizer has <a href="https://welch.house.gov/sites/welch.house.gov/files/Pfizer%20Price%20Gouger%20Tax%20Dodger%20Report%20FINAL.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">increased</a> the <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/pfizer-myth-not-lowered-prices/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">prices</a> of dozens of prescription drugs at over ten times the rate of inflation.

Now Pfizer is basking in the glow of media coverage for the so-called "Pfizer Vaccine." The company deserves credit for its all-out efforts to distribute the medication to millions of people. But the vaccine was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/europe/biontech-pfizer-vaccine-team-couple-intl/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">created</a> by the Turkish/German founders of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, who guided the development of the messenger RNA process that triggers an immune reaction against Covid. The groundwork for the relatively rapid production of the vaccine was <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/12/07/how-did-we-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine-so-fast-years-of-research/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">laid in place</a> at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennsylvania by research on the prior SARS and MERS outbreaks. More <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expertise</a> came from the taxpayer-funded Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, "The speed is a reflection of years of work that went before." Indeed, a successful vaccine is the product of long-term social cooperation, not individualism.

Inequality: Going Viral

Thanks to the insidious <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-19/column-trickle-down-is-a-lie" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">conservative-minded</a> 50-year-old "trickle-down" philosophy—which astoundingly continues to be preached by many of the super-rich—inequality has stretched our nation nearly to the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/30/inequality-gone-viral-obscene-numbers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">breaking point</a>.

At <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/30/inequality-gone-viral-obscene-numbers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">one end</a>, the 25 million adults who make up the richest 10% of America increased their wealth in this pandemic year by an average of $200,000 each.

At the other end: it is <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/millions-in-u-s-heading-into-the-holidays-unemployed-and-over-5000-behind-on-rent/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">estimated</a> by Moody's Analytics that nearly 12 million American renters will owe an average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities by the beginning of 2021. Little of America's surging <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/154286/50YearTrends.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">income and wealth</a> since the 1970s has gone to the poorest 50%.

Some Hope?

Philosopher and political economist <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1486818-conservatives-are-not-necessarily-stupid-but-most-stupid-people-are" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">John Stuart Mill</a> once said, "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."

As Mill made clear, smart people have also gravitated to the conservative side. Among them were the aforementioned anti-government crusaders Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who expressed <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/why-legendary-economists-liked-universal-basic-income-1.1216387" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">support</a> for a Universal Basic Income. In fact, the UBI concept has been promoted by both political parties over the years. But it will take the will and fortitude of Congress to make it a reality. And Congress is overflowing with John Stuart Mill's conservatives.</div></div><div> =</div>=1120 2 good cands
<h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">c<a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/operation-warp-speed/" aria-label="Chief adviser on Operation Warp Speed: ‘The president has never been actively involved’ in COVID-19 vaccine" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;">hief adviser on Operation Warp Speed: ‘The president has never been actively involved’ in COVID-19 vaccine</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/sarah-k-burris" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;">Sarah K. Burris</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;">Raw Story</a></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2648941662" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; margin-bottom: 15px; display: -webkit-box; text-overflow: ellipsis; line-height: 23px; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description" style="">President Donald Trump has never really been involved in the COVID-19 vaccine, chief adviser for Operation Warp Speed Dr. Moncef Slaoui told MSNBC on Monday.Upon news that another vaccine has pro....</div></div>=1120<h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">h<a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/hhs-finally-releases-documents-showing-wave-of-dubious-vaccine-contracts/" aria-label="HHS finally releases documents showing wave of dubious vaccine contracts with big pharmaceutical companies" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" word-break="word-break" break-word="break-word" outline="outline" px="px" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" font-size="font-size" line-height="line-height">HS finally releases documents showing wave of dubious vaccine contracts with big pharmaceutical companies</a></h1>=920 talk of skipping/skimping on 3rd phase testing?<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.42;">trump’s vaccine czar refuses to give up stock in drug company involved in his government role</h2><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/23/trumps-vaccine-czar-refuses-to-give-up-stock-in-drug-company-involved-in-his-government-role_partner/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">ISAAC ARNSDORF - PROPUBLICA</a><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>nyt</div><div>Among the other payments to Mr. Cohen’s company described in the financial records were four for $99,980 each between October and January by Novartis Investments S.A.R.L., a subsidiary of Novartis, the multinational pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland. Novartis — whose chief executive was among 15 business leaders invited to dinner with Mr. Trump at the World Economic Forum in January — spent more than $10 million on lobbying in Washington last year and frequently seeks approvals from federal drug regulators. Novartis said in a statement that its agreement with Essential Consultants had expired.</div><div>=</div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/like-the-wolf-saying-hell-guard-the-henhouse-big-pharma-ceo-insists-industry-can-police-itself-on-19-vaccine/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">Like the wolf saying he’ll guard the henhouse’: Big Pharma CEO insists industry can police itself on COVID-19 vaccine</a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jake-johnson/" title="Posts by Jake Johnson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jake Johnson</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a>September 2, 2020</div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Amid growing concerns that the Trump administration is moving to bypass normal and crucial safety protocols in a rush to approve a Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the November election, the CEO of…</div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/health-experts-warn-about-political-interference-in-vaccines-as-trump-urges-warp-speed/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/health-experts-warn-about-political-interference-in-vaccines-as-trump-urges-warp-speed/</a>no lnx twt
 Julia Conley / Common Dreams August 3, 2020Public health experts on Monday raised alarm over the White House’s aggressive push to rush a Covid-19 vaccine into production, an effort which critics say has been apparent since the first weeks of the pandemic.
According to a New York Times report, researchers working on Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership established to find a vaccine that could be given to the public within the next few months, are “under constant pressure from a White House anxious for good news.”
When the task force was first assembled in April, weeks after the pandemic began and when President Donald Trump was insisting to the public that the coronavirus would likely disappear on its own, the Health and Human Services Department shared a presentation with the White House saying October 2020 should be a firm “deadline” for developing a vaccine and giving “broad access to the public.”
The Trump administration has since begun promoting late 2020 or early 2021 as the timeframe for a Covid-19 vaccine, but public health officials are concerned that the president’s desire to win re-election may interfere with scientists’ efforts to ensure a vaccine is safe and effective before it is approved for use by the public.
With Trump campaign officials reportedly calling a potential pre-election vaccine “the holy grail,” experts told the Times of their concern that Trump will pressure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve whichever vaccine is furthest along in the clinical trial process in the weeks before the general election on November 3.
“There are a lot of people on the inside of this process who are very nervous about whether the administration is going to reach their hand into the Warp Speed bucket, pull out one or two or three vaccines, and say, ‘We’ve tested it on a few thousand people, it looks safe, and now we are going to roll it out,'” Dr. Paul A. Offit of the University of Pennsylvania, who serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told the Times.
Presidential adviser Jared Kushner, who is helping to lead Trump’s reelection campaign and influenced the decision to name Dr. Moncef Slaoui as chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, is reportedly in regular contact with public health officials to speed up the development of a vaccine.
“Researchers are fearful of political intervention in the coming months and are struggling to ensure that the government maintains the right balance between speed and rigorous regulation,” the Times reported.
The pressure campaign from the White House has led companies researching vaccines to begin manufacturing millions of doses of the immunization, “essentially on spec so that they can be distributed quickly if they secure approval.”
The newspaper’s report came a day after Dr. Steven Salzberg, a biomedical engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University, suggested in a Forbes op-ed that vaccines which have entered Phase 3 of their clinical trials, the final step in pharmaceutical testing before approval, should be offered more widely to the public at a faster pace:
We already have two vaccines in phase 3 trials in the U.S. and Europe; each of these trials which will vaccinate many thousands of people, and then wait to see how many get infected… But we don’t have to wait. Both of these vaccines (from Moderna and Oxford University/Astra Zeneca) have already been shown, in phase 1 trials, to be safe and probably effective. That’s why the companies are moving ahead and giving each vaccine to 30,000 more people: they are fairly confident that the vaccines are safe…So why not start administering millions of doses right now?
Others in the science and public health communities were distraught over Salzberg’s suggestion, taking to social media on Sunday to explain why rushing to administer vaccines to millions of people before clinical trials have been completed is, as one science journalist tweeted, “a horrifically bad idea.”
“Drug trials exist for a reason. So many things can go wrong,” wrote Erin Biba. “If you skip the checks and balances the amount of damage that can be done is astronomical.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Laurie Garrett derided Salzberg’s piece as an “utterly bonkers, insane, irresponsible article,” while University of Florida biostatistics professor Natalie Dean laid out the dangers of offering a vaccine to the public before its efficacy and safety is proven via the painstaking process of completed clinical trials.In an op-ed at the Times on Monday, Dean questioned the very notion of developing a vaccine for a newly-discovered virus at “warp speed.”
Dean noted that in a survey taken by AP-NORC in May, 31% of respondents said they were unsure whether they would get a coronavirus vaccine once one is made available, in a display of the “vaccine hesitancy” which the World Health Organization says could jeopardize the global community’s ability to combat the pandemic.
“This hesitancy isn’t surprising. Why should we expect Americans to agree to a vaccine before one is even available?” wrote Dean. “I’m a vaccine researcher, and even I would place myself in the ‘not sure’ bucket… The evidence that would convince me to get a Covid-19 vaccine, or to recommend that my loved ones get vaccinated, does not yet exist.”
That data can only be gathered through a complete Phase 3 trial of a vaccine, Dean wrote, showing that a vaccine either provides immunity to Covid-19 or, like the flu vaccine, keeps patients from developing severe symptoms of the illness if they contract it.
Although the public’s desperation for a Covid-19 vaccine is understandable, Dean wrote, “a weak vaccine might be worse than no vaccine at all. We do not want people who are only slightly protected to behave as if they are invulnerable, which could exacerbate transmission.”
“It is also costly to roll out a vaccine, diverting attention away from other efforts that we know work, like mask-wearing, and from testing better vaccines,” she added.
Following the backlash against his article, Salzberg on Monday wrote an update to the Forbes piece, titled “I Was Wrong: We Can’t Skip Phase 3 Vaccine Trials.”
“If we expand the distribution of vaccines too quickly, and then the vaccine doesn’t work, we may seriously undermine the public’s trust in any eventual vaccine that really does work,” Salzberg wrote. “That in turn will reduce the number of people willing to be vaccinated, which could cause serious harm to public health.”
The Trump administration, the researchers who are under pressure from the White House, and the public must “resist the desire” to push for a rushed vaccine by the election, early 2021, or any specific date, Dean suggested.
“Creating vaccines is hard, and we should be prepared for the reality that some promising ones will not meet the F.D.A.’s criteria,” she continued. “Researchers and the government should also commit to transparency so that people can see the results for themselves to understand the regulatory decisions. Waiting for a better vaccine to come along may feel like torture, but it is the right move. With so many potential shots on goal, scientists are optimistic that a safe and effective vaccine is out there. We can’t afford to jeopardize the public’s health and hard-earned trust by approving anything short of that.”---aside related
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trumps-withdrawal-from-who-a-cover-up-for-his-abject-failures/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trumps-withdrawal-from-who-a-cover-up-for-his-abject-failures/</a>
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-is-still-trying-to-destroy-obamacare-but-its-been-a-crucial-lifeline-during-the/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-is-still-trying-to-destroy-obamacare-but-its-been-a-crucial-lifeline-during-the/</a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-vaccine-chief-picks-his-own-former-employer-for-2-1-billion-deal/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-vaccine-chief-picks-his-own-former-employer-for-2-1-billion-deal/</a>no lnxtrump’s vaccine chief picks his own former employer for $2.1 billion dealLt. Governor Rutherford Participates In GlaxoSmithKline Ribbon Cutting Ceremony by Anthony DePanise at 14200 Shady Grove Rd Rockville MD 20850, Image via.Written by Eoin Higgins / Common Dreams August 2, 2020The White House on Friday awarded a record-breaking $2.1 billion contract for development of a Covid-19 vaccine, raising questions about a former pharmaceutical executive’s involvement in the administration’s decision.The deal is for 100 million doses of a vaccine manufactured by Sanofi, a French drug maker, and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
As Fortune reported:The deal follows billions of dollars of U.S. commitments to other experimental vaccines—all still needing to show their effectiveness in testing—and may stoke concerns that other countries will be left behind. Vaccines are seen as the key to leading the world out of the pandemic that has killed about 675,000 people in a matter of months.Dr. Moncef Slaoui, a former GSK executive, is head of the White House’s Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s program to develop and disburse an effective coronavirus vaccine. Slaoui’s connection to his former company has been the focus of concern from advocacy groups and politicians skeptical of his claims of neutrality.According to the New York Times:Dr. Slaoui is not a federal employee, instead working under a $1 contract that exempts him from federal rules that would require him to list his outside positions, stock holdings and other potential conflicts. Dr. Slaoui said in an interview in May that he was determined to avoid any conflicts of interest, but that his GSK stock represented his retirement from 29 years at the company, and that he had told federal officials he would not take the job if he had to sell it.Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns over Slaoui’s ties to GSK in May.
“It is a huge conflict of interest for the White House’s new vaccine czar to own $10 million of stock in a company receiving government funding to develop a Covid-19 vaccine,” Warren tweeted. “Dr. Slaoui should divest immediately.As Common Dreams reported, the former executive’s refusal to relinquish his shares in the company made the process of awarding a contract a “sham,” in the words of former Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub.“You can’t have a contractor supervising government officials,” said Shaub.<div>=</div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/hhs-inspector-general-allows-trumps-vaccine-czar-to-maintain-big-pharma-investments-despite-blatant-conflict-of-interest">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/hhs-inspector-general-allows-trumps-vaccine-czar-to-maintain-big-pharma-investments-despite-blatant-conflict-of-interest</a>
slaoui COI?<div>==</div>