Don't rush the vaccine

The coronavirus that has killed more than 180,000 Americans has been confounding from the start.

It has baffled doctors with the range and duration of its insidious effects, surprised policymakers with the way it has spread, and frustrated the public with its persistence. Now it is incubating another head-scratcher: Even as it becomes more likely that one or more vaccines will be developed to fight the scourge, resistance among Americans to taking it also is rising.

That's alarming. But it doesn't have to be that way. The urgency of the White House in pushing for a vaccine is creating a petri dish of doubt among those already enmeshed in anti-vaxxer internet conspiracy theories and those who worry the haste will result in shortcuts that could be harmful to some who take the vaccine.

We all want an effective vaccine as quickly as possible. Wearing masks, maintaining safe distances from others, testing and contact tracing — where they've been done diligently — have slowed the spread of COVID-19 but not eradicated it. That and the normalcy we crave can only happen with one or more vaccines.

More than 170 are being tested worldwide in what has become a competitive race for a cure. More than 30 of these vaccines are being tested in humans, eight in crucial large-scale Phase 3 trials. Advances in science and new technological tools have sped up the process, for sure, but the fastest successful development of a vaccine is the four years it took to get one for mumps which was approved in 1967.

Yet President Donald Trump continues to say a vaccine will be arriving "soon," or "far in advance of the end of the year," or as he did in his acceptance speech Thursday night, "before the end of the year or maybe even sooner," and sometimes, tellingly, before the Nov. 3 presidential election. He knows controlling the virus could be a winning strategy for reelection, but the dangers of rushing are clear.

Trump has disregarded science and scientists throughout this crisis. His resistance to wearing a mask, his suggestion that disinfectants could be injected as a cure, and his embrace of drugs not proved to be effective were harmful and confusing. As a result, he has lost the trust of many Americans on matters of science. That presents a huge problem for acceptance of a vaccine. The public will be skeptical. Had it truly been proved safe or did the announcement come only to help his reelection?

Recent events compounded that distrust.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of antibody-rich plasma from COVID-19 survivors to treat patients with the virus, something Trump declared a "historic breakthrough." But experts said the FDA acted without sufficient evidence of the effectiveness of the treatment and FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn had to apologize for overstating benefits observed thus far. Trump had accused nameless people at the FDA of slow-walking the plasma approval for political reasons, when it seems clear Trump pushed for its too-quick approval for his own political reasons.

The damage to the FDA's credibility is worrisome — the agency will make the determination on the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine.

Also last week, the CDC suddenly, and reportedly after pressure from the upper ranks of the administration, changed its guidance on coronavirus testing, saying that people who have close contact with an infected person don't necessarily need to get tested if they are asymptomatic. That's completely at odds with health experts who know asymptomatic people can and have spread the virus. And public trust took another blow.

Early this month, 65% of Americans in a Gallup Poll said they would get an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, but only 44% said the same less than two weeks later in an NBC/SurveyMonkey poll. Already, fewer than one in three Americans trust the federal government to look out for their best interests. The skepticism is especially pronounced among Blacks, hit hard by the virus. Nationally, 72% say they are not likely to get the vaccine, while a nextLI survey found that 73% of Blacks on Long Island say either they won't get the vaccine or are not sure.

Some Trump administration actions on vaccines are laudable. Operation Warp Speed — in which the U.S. government has invested more than $9 billion to speed up vaccine development and jump-start manufacturing before research is completed — is a good idea if it means that millions of doses of a vaccine will be available upon its approval. But good science can't be rushed.

Ultimately, the American people will be the arbiters of whether they will participate in a vaccination program. They will need to be convinced one is safe and effective. Such confidence is a fragile thing, strained by a president and an administration that have squandered public trust and by the misguided skepticism some people have toward vaccines in general, with no basis in fact.

Trump has a race he wants to win in November, but the race that really matters is the one to protect Americans from this killer virus. That's a race that can't be rushed.