Will COVID-19 vaccines be safe? Fauci offers reassurance on quick development

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, offered reassurance Thursday on the safety and science behind two leading COVID-19 vaccines.

Fauci said the coronavirus vaccines quickly created by Moderna and Pfizer are the result of “extraordinary” advances in medicine and the developers did not compromise safety or scientific integrity.

“We need to put to rest any concept that this was rushed in an inappropriate way,” Fauci said in an update by the White House coronavirus task force. “This is really solid.”

The completed trials have shown the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to be 95% and 94.5% efficacious, respectively. Now the vaccines will go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval.

“Help is on the way,” Fauci said.

But he urged Americans to “double down” on public health measures, including mask wearing and social distancing, while waiting on the vaccine to be distributed.

“If you’re fighting a battle and the cavalry is on the way, you don’t stop shooting. You keep fighting,” Fauci said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Will COVID-19 vaccines be safe? Fauci offers reassurance on quick development."