Former President Donald Trump’s advisers repeatedly hindered the FDA’s strategy to extend the safety studies on COVID-19 vaccines in the fall of 2020.
Trump tried to compel the agency for a quicker timeline so he could declare the vaccines officially before the 2020 presidential elections. This startling revelation came through a series of text messages, interviews, and emails by a bipartisan congressional panel investigating the official response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The people pressing the FDA on behalf of Trump included Peter Navarro, the then trade adviser, and even outside supporters such as physician and TV personality Mehmet Oz.
These motley bunch of officials and independent supporters pressed FDA officials to authorize hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a potent treatment for coronavirus.
Navarro and other officials worked hard to persuade a hospital to request the FDA that it give unhindered access to the discredited theory which was publicly espoused repeatedly by Trump, who regularly tripped over himself trying to utter the name of the drug.
Trump And His Cohorts Campaign Against The FDA Harmed Their Ability To Fight The Pandemic During A Crucial Period
The pressure campaign rattled FDA officials and endangered progress made in the vaccine and other forms of genuine treatment, according to Stephen Hahn, the former commissioner of the agency.
In an interview, Hahn said that he and other officials were strongly behind the vaccine and the proven clinical facts behind it. He said he was strongly against any suggestion made by Trump and his henchmen to have been changed.
This sustained attack on the agency and attempts made by Trump to discredit it after he failed in his nefarious attempts only left the FDA scarred. It undermined and undermined their ability to function and led to a lack of faith in the health department in the most crucial period for the agency.
Trump and the Republican Party disparaged the panel’s work and instead have vowed to launch an investigation into Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert for close to 4 decades.
