NIH Director: ‘Reasonably Likely’ We Will Have Vaccine That’s ‘Judged Safe and Effective’ by End of Year

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins stated that he and most experts “would say we’re reasonably likely to have at least one vaccine” for the coronavirus “that’s judged safe and effective by the end of 2020,” and that “probably the highest standards that ever have been applied for a vaccine, are going to be applied in this situation.”

Collins said, “I think most of us, including myself and Dr. Fauci, who’s my colleague who’s the most expert in infectious disease, would say we’re reasonably likely to have at least one vaccine that’s judged safe and effective by the end of 2020, but to get it much sooner than that would be, perhaps, a bit startling.”

He later added, “I just want to reassure everybody who’s listening, we are not going to make shortcuts in that assessment of safety and efficacy. This is in a place where there are multiple different layers of oversight of this, to make sure that nothing gets pushed through unless it meets the highest standards, probably the highest standards that ever have been applied for a vaccine, are going to be applied in this situation.”

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