Britain ‘rushed’ Pfizer Covid vaccine approval

WASHINGTON: Leading American infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci (pictured) criticised Britain on Thursday for rushing through its approval process for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, suggesting the move could undermine public faith. His comments came a day after Britain became the first Western country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for general use, prompting some scepticism among the country’s European neighbours and suggestions that the process was politicised. Widely-respected Fauci, who leads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News on Thursday: “In all fairness to so many of my UK friends, you know, they kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last mile. “I think that would be a good metaphor for it... because they really rushed through that approval.” He contrasted Britain’s regulator with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which he called “the gold standard of regulation.” “They’re doing it in a very careful way, appropriately, because if we did anything that was cutting corners and rushing, we have enough problem(s) with people being sceptical about taking a vaccine anyway,” he said. — AFP