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Once upon a time, Donald Trump was a prominent vaccine sceptic, frequently telling interviewers that he believed childhood vaccinations were to blame for what he called an autism epidemic. Well now, with his re-election chances depending in part on whether or not a coronavirus vaccine will be approved in time for November's vote, the president has changed his tune, instead calling out his opponents for what he calls anti-vaccination rhetoric. Meanwhile, those opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have been out there warning about the risks that they see of rushing through a vaccine approval before November's election.
Public health scientists are delighted that the president is banging the drum for vaccines. But they're worried that the way in which this is becoming an election issue risks undermining confidence not only in a coronavirus vaccine, but in vaccines more generally. A poll recently out by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that over 50 per cent of Americans say they wouldn't take a coronavirus vaccine if it was approved before November's election.
We don't know for sure how many people need to take a vaccine for the coronavirus to stop spreading through the community. But we believe it is somewhere in the range of 60 per cent to 70 per cent.
Against this backdrop, the pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines are beginning to get worried. Caught between a president who is desperate for some kind of pre-election boost and his opponents, who are casting aspersions on the US drug approvals process, they're worried that their reputations might take a long-term hit. So nine of them have come together to put out a rare joint public statement, saying that they won't push for approval of their vaccines before they're confident that they are both safe and effective. The question is, are they willing to hold off and stop Mr Trump getting any kind of pre-election boost by not submitting their plans for approval until after November?
