Fauci Apologizes for Casting Doubt Over UK’s Approval of Pfizer Vaccine

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious-disease expert, on Thursday doubled down his criticism of the UK’s “rushed” decision to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot – before apologizing and claiming it was a “misunderstanding.”

After the UK on Wednesday became the first Western country to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, EU politicians called the decision “hasty” and “problematic.” Fauci contributed to the criticism on Thursday, telling Fox News that UK regulators hadn’t scrutinized the Pfizer trial data as “carefully” as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“If you go quickly and you do it superficially, people are not going to want to get vaccinated,” he said.

In interviews with CBS News and Sky News later on Thursday, Fauci doubled down on his criticism, saying the UK had “rushed its approval.”

“They kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last mile,” Fauci told CBS News in an interview for an episode of “The Takeout” podcast, adding that UK regulators “really rushed through that approval.”

“I love the Brits, they’re great, they’re good scientists, but they just took the data from the Pfizer company and instead of scrutinizing it really, really carefully, they said, ‘OK, let’s approve it, that’s it.’ And they went with it,” Fauci said.

He added that the UK had been “severely criticized” by officials in the European Union.

Fauci then walked back on his comments later on Thursday in an interview with the BBC, saying there was “no judgement on the way the UK did it,” and that he hadn’t meant to imply any “sloppiness” from UK regulators. “There really has been a misunderstanding and for that I’m sorry and I apologize” he said. “I do have great faith in both [the] scientific community and regulatory community in the UK.”

Fauci said that if the US had approved the vaccine as quickly as the UK, there would have likely been pushback in society.

“We do things a certain way in the US – possibly a little different, not necessarily better or worse than what’s done in the UK, and that’s where I slipped,” he said.

“Our process is one that takes more time than it takes in the UK. And that’s just the reality,” Fauci told the BBC. “I did not mean to imply any sloppiness even though it came out that way.”

The US hasn’t yet authorized a COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA has arranged a December 10 meeting between a panel independent experts to evaluate Pfizer’s shot, and a decision on whether to authorize the vaccine could come on the same day.

Late-stage trial studies suggest the vaccine is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19.