FDA's Hahn defends pace of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine review

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., has defended the pace of the review of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on the grounds that a thorough assessment is needed to reassure a skeptical public.

Hahn, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, made the comments in the wake of the authorization of the vaccine for use in the U.K. President Donald Trump’s chief of staff reportedly demanded to know why the British were moving faster. Hahn declined to comment on that interaction with the White House in his conversation with the WSJ but did set out how the FDA is approaching the process and why.