Top FDA official vows to resign if Trump approves vaccine not proven to be safe

A top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official vowed to resign from his post if the Trump administration approves a COVID-19 vaccine that is not proven to be safe and effective. 

Public health officials and lawmakers have worried Trump would pressure the FDA to approve a vaccine for political purposes.

Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told Reuters he hasn’t been pressured, but if that changes, “I could not stand by and see something that was unsafe or ineffective that was being put through.”

“You have to decide where your red line is, and that’s my red line,” he said. “I would feel obligated [to resign] because in doing so, I would indicate to the American public that there’s something wrong.”

The worry about Trump’s influence on the FDA follows his promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 cure. The FDA granted an emergency use authorization for the drug, which was later pulled when clinical trials deemed that it has no positive effect on COVID-19 patients. Trump has also said a vaccine could be approved before the elections in November. 

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has repeatedly stated that a COVID-19 vaccine will only be approved if it is found to be safe and effective in clinical trials. 

The U.S. has invested billions of dollars in potential COVID-19 vaccines from several different drug manufacturers. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the federal government should know by the end of the year whether any of those vaccines are safe and effective.