Any coronavirus vaccine developed in the United States would be shared with the international community only after the needs of Americans have been met, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on Monday during his visit to Taiwan, the Independent reported.
“Our first priority, of course, is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States,” Azar said. “But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on.”
President Donald Trump has vowed to have a vaccine ready before the end of this year, even though such a process normally takes years rather than months, News 18 reported.
Trump critics are worried that the administration will “declare success” on a vaccine ahead of the November elections and bring one to market before it has been properly determined to be safe and effective, thus endangering the public, according to the Indpendent.
Azar already has praised Taiwan’s response to the pandemic as “among the most successful in the world,” citing it as “a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan’s society and culture.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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