A Covid-19 vac­cine OK is im­mi­nent, but Trump con­tin­ues un­prece­dent­ed as­sault on the FDA

The FDA is ex­pect­ed to au­tho­rize Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech’s Covid-19 vac­cine can­di­date im­mi­nent­ly, but Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump is nev­er­the­less ratch­et­ing up pres­sure on the agency to move faster, con­tin­u­ing a year of un­prece­dent­ed po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in reg­u­la­to­ry de­ci­sions that have tra­di­tion­al­ly re­mained in­su­lat­ed from the White House.

On Fri­day morn­ing, min­utes af­ter FDA com­mis­sion­er Stephen Hahn and FDA vac­cines and bi­o­log­ics chief Pe­ter Marks an­nounced they were fi­nal­iz­ing an emer­gency use au­tho­riza­tion for the vac­cine, Trump tweet­ed an at­tack on the agency and its leader by name.

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