Dr. Levine: We feel better if a vaccine has completed its stage 3 trials
HARRISBURG — It was announced this week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notified public health officials in all 50 states that they should prepare for distribution of a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups by late October or early November.
Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, was asked about the timeline in her daily update Thursday, “We’ll see if the vaccine is generated before that time. We all want a vaccine. A vaccine is going to be critically important as we continue our preparation for this virus,” Levine said.
“In discussion with other state health officials, we feel better if a vaccine has completed its stage 3 trials. Is that it completes all the testing for safety and effectiveness, and that is usually what we would expect from a vaccine and what we are expecting from this vaccine,” Levine added.
The New York Times reports that the CDC sent out documents with new guidance on the same day that President Trump told the nation in his speech at the Republican National Convention that a vaccine could arrive before the end of the year. In the past week, both Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who heads the Food and Drug Administration, have said that a vaccine may be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if data is overwhelmingly positive.
