Covid-19 vaccines shouldn’t get emergency-use authorization

Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images. Article by Clint Hermes.

Public trust in vaccines is already in decline. The FDA should proceed with caution.

I really want a covid-19 vaccine. Like many Americans, I have family members and neighbors who have been sickened and killed by the new coronavirus. My sister is a nurse on a covid-19 ward, and I want her to be able to do her job safely. As a health-care lawyer, I have the utmost confidence in the career scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration who would ultimately determine whether to issue an emergency-use authorization for a covid-19 vaccine. But I am deeply worried about what could happen if they do.

The pace of covid-19 vaccine research has been astonishing: there are more than 200 vaccine candidates in some stage of development, including several that are already in phase 3 clinical trials, mere months after covid-19 became a global public health emergency. […]

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