Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that the Trump administration responded to the coronavirus pandemic by hitting the “accelerator in every aspect.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) asked Fauci, “Has anybody in this administration ever asked you or any member to take the foot off the gas of trying to find a cure or any type of counter measure?”
“No, Senator, not at all,” Fauci said. “As a matter of fact, we at NIH, as you know, have right from the very beginning put our foot right on that accelerator in every aspect, including the development of vaccines and therapeutics.”
“And as I described my opening statement, we actually started that in January, literally days after the virus was known and its sequence was published,” Fauci continued. “So no, I have never been told by anyone to hold back on the development of any countermeasure or any basic research project that we’ve been involved in.”
WATCH:
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Trump administration directed accelerated coronavirus response “right from the very beginning”https://t.co/6MQnsy29Ae pic.twitter.com/YSCgaJVwMU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 12, 2020
Fauci also highlighted the work that the NIH has done in developing a vaccine which Fauci said was the fastest that anyone has ever moved to get to a phase one trial.
“The NIH trial moved very quickly,” Fauci said. “On January 10th, the sequence was known. On January the 11th, the Vaccine Research Center met to develop a plan. On the 14th of January, we officially started the vaccine development. 62 days later, we are now in Phase I clinical trial with the two doses already fully enrolled. There will be animal safety. The Phase I will directly go into Phase II-III in late spring and early summer. If we are successful, we hope to know that in the late fall and early winter.”
“There are some important issues, however, in COVID-19 vaccine development,” Fauci continued. “We have many candidates and hope to have multiple winners. In other words, it’s multiple shots on goal. This will be important because this will be good for global availability if we have more than one successful candidate. We also, as the chairman mentioned, will be producing vaccine at risk, which means we’ll be investigating considerable resources in developing doses even before we know any given candidate or candidates work.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci: vaccine developments, trials have “moved very quickly”https://t.co/b9LFxMULt6 pic.twitter.com/Sy2scUfZyT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 12, 2020
Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir all confirmed during their testimonies that they had a non-confrontational relationship with President Donald Trump and that the president listens to their scientific advice.
Their statements came in response to a question from Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who asked,” The mainstream media and indeed some of my colleagues in the Senate seem to want to paint each of your relationships with our president during this wartime effort as confrontational and lacking consensus. Can you categorically say here to the American people today whether this is true or untrue?”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, health experts correct the Democrats' false narrative, reaffirm no confrontational relationshiphttps://t.co/FYhmFwSRBW pic.twitter.com/Bu5XlGPrmU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 12, 2020
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