President-elect Joe Biden today lauded the news of Pfizer’s progress on a COVID-19 vaccine but urged Americans to be cautious because widespread vaccination is still many months away.
Biden said Pfizer’s announcement that interim data showed its vaccine was 90 percent effective was “excellent news” that gives Americans “cause for hope.”
But Biden said the news does not mean there is a cure.
He urged patience and attempted to set realistic expectations that the timetable for any potential vaccine has not changed, and it will be well into 2021 before there is widespread vaccination.
“America is still losing over 1,000 people a day from COVID-19, and that number is rising — and will continue to get worse unless we make progress on masking and other immediate actions. That is the reality for now, and for the next few months. Today’s announcement promises the chance to change that next year, but the tasks before us now remain the same,” Biden said.
Biden also urged Americans to wear a face mask, saying that doing so “is not a political statement” and the best way to save lives before a coronavirus vaccine is widely available.
“The goal of mask-wearing is not to make your life less comfortable or take something away from you. It’s to give something back to all of us: a normal life,” he said. “The goal is to get back to normal as fast as possible, and masks are critical to doing that. It won’t be forever.”
“Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing, and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year. Today’s news is great news, but it doesn’t change that fact,” Biden added.
Pfizer on Monday announced that early results from its late-stage clinical trial showed its COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people compared with a placebo saline shot.
The data were encouraging and showed the potential that the unprecedented scientific effort to find a vaccine for COVID-19 could be successful.
Biden’s statement was a sharp contrast to defeated President Trump, who has used vaccine development as a political tool.
He accused Food and Drug Administration scientists of being part of a “deep state” conspiracy to slow a vaccine, and said the agency was pulling a “political hit job.”
Trump’s allies also sought to give the president credit for Pfizer’s effort.
However, the company is not part of the administration’s Operation Warp Speed effort and did not take any federal funding to develop a vaccine.
The government will pay Pfizer almost $2 billion to deliver 100 million doses, which the government will distribute when they are ready.
Biden’s transition team earlier this morning announced the group of public health experts that will make up his coronavirus advisory board, which includes Rick Bright, a whistleblower from the Trump administration who alleged that his early warnings about the pandemic were ignored and ultimately led to his removal.
The inclusion of Bright, who said that he was met with skepticism by Trump administration officials when he raised concerns in the early throes of the pandemic about critical supplies shortages, is a clear signal of the contrasted direction that Biden intends to take his administration when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.
Revealing the members of the pandemic task force is the transition’s first major announcement, highlighting how important the President-elect finds combating the deadly virus which has taken more than 230,000 lives in the United States.
The announcement also comes as the nation nears 10 million cases, with over 9.9 million reported cases as of Sunday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The task force is chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.
Among the other thirteen members are Dr. Luciana Borio, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act and an ex-Obama health adviser.
Both Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received a briefing from the transition coronavirus advisory board today.