The Trump administration reportedly told the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, to either approve the new coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer or submit his resignation. Sources told The Washington Post that Hahn received this ultimatum from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows himself on Friday. Among the many problems with Meadows’ alleged threat is that it could further undermine public faith in immunization.
Meadows has reportedly been hounding FDA scientists for months on behalf of President Donald Trump, trying to subvert scientific procedure, bypass safety protocols and get a COVID-19 vaccine passed quickly. While scientists around the world have adjusted their review processes in light of the emergency, FDA officials were struggling to “ward off President Trump’s importuning on the vaccine and keep the review process apolitical and transparent in the hopes of boosting public confidence in the shots.” In the case of threatening Hahn, the ultimatum may have only bought the administration one day.
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Hahn and the FDA reportedly intended to approve the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine on Saturday morning once all the review process routines were complete. However, Hahn was warned that his career could be at stake if the drug wasn’t approved by the end of the day on Friday, adding pressure to an already high-stakes situation.
Critics thought that this threat had the exact wrong impact on every aspect of vaccine development. One social media user commented: “If you wanted to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, I can’t imagine there’s anything more you would do besides exerting this kind of political pressure on the approval process. Just beyond stupid.” Another tweeted:” Wow. What’s the hurry? ‘It’s just the flu,’ and it affects ‘virtually nobody.’”
This alleged threat falls in line with a pattern within the Trump administration of ignoring or even contradicting qualified public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic. This fall, a study by Cornell University concluded that Trump was “likely the largest driver” of coronavirus misinformation in the first half of 2020.
Throughout the pandemic, Trump suggested coronavirus treatments or cures based on misinformation or complete fabrications, such as the infamous press conference where he suggested that injections of cleaning supplies could work on the virus.
All the while, he was pressuring qualified public health officials to back his claims up and trying to take credit for any advancements that were made under his presidency. Now that he has lost the 2020 presidential election, Trump has just a few weeks left to combat the virus before President-elect Joe Biden takes over.
