Covid-19 roundup: Fau­ci re­it­er­ates Oc­to­ber vac­cine OK 'un­like­ly'; Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech re­serve 200M dos­es for EU

An­tho­ny Fau­ci is dou­bling down on the mes­sage that a vac­cine au­tho­riza­tion by No­vem­ber 3 is “un­like­ly,” even if not im­pos­si­ble, join­ing a grow­ing cho­rus of gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials who are go­ing against ul­tra-op­ti­mistic time­lines from cer­tain de­vel­op­ers.

Echo­ing Mon­cef Slaoui — the sci­en­tif­ic chief of Op­er­a­tion Warp Speed — who sees a low chance of the on­go­ing Phase III tri­als read­ing out be­fore the end of Oc­to­ber, Fau­ci told Judy Woodruff on PBS New­sHour that da­ta that can of­fer a de­fin­i­tive an­swer on the lead­ing vac­cines’ safe­ty and ef­fi­ca­cy are more like­ly to ar­rive “by the end of the year.”

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