Fauci Still Believes Vaccine Will Arrive by End of Year

Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told the House’s coronavirus subcommittee Friday that he’s still “cautiously optimistic” that a COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered before year’s end.

At a hearing to discuss the need for a national coronavirus strategy, Fauci also tried to ease lawmakers’ fears that research and development on coronavirus treatments and vaccines may be moving too fast.

“I know to some people this seems like it’s so fast that there might be compromising of safety and in scientific integrity, and I can tell you that is absolutely not the case,” he said. “The rapidity with which we’re doing it is as a result of very different technologies in getting from the time we recognized this pathogen … [to starting phase 3 trials]. That was not reckless rushing. That was technology and doing things in a way that does not compromise any of the steps.”

Fauci touted promising preliminary data from Moderna’s phase 1 trial of a vaccine candidate the drugmaker is developing in conjunction with NIAID but warned that there are no certainties when it comes to vaccine research.