US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci was “caught on the hop a little bit” when he criticised the UKs approval of the coronavirus vaccine, according to Professor Luke O’Neill.
Dr Fauci has apologised for questioning the level of scrutiny UK regulators had given the vaccine before approving it last week and suggesting the process had been rushed.
In an interview with Sky News he said authorities had analysed the data “very quickly” and in a “less deep” than the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He has since said he misspoke and apologised to UK regulators.
“There really has been a misunderstanding, and for that I’m sorry, and I apologize for that,” he told the BBC.
“I do have great faith in both the scientific community and the regulatory community at the U.K.”
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Trinity Professor Luke O'Neill said the UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) “did a really rigorous job.”
“I think he was kind of caught on the hop a little bit and he said they seem to be not as careful as the FDA,” he said. “Which might be true because the FDA is an extremely careful organisation.”
“But then he apologised, he said, ‘listen the MHRA is a fantastically competent organisation.
“Over the weekend, more information has come out on the whole process and even more information on the vaccine so we are learning more about it but there is no doubt that the MRHA did a really rigorous job and the fact they have approved the vaccine wouldn’t be a concern."
He noted that the MRHA Chief Executive Dr June Raine has now come out with a lot more detail about how the vaccine was approved.
“She said the process began back in June when they got 48 experts on to a panel,” he said.
“That was immunologists and virologists and they were consulted a huge amount and then you get to September and they begin testing some of the batches from Pfizer and there is a place called the NIBSC, it is the National Institute of Biological Standards, they tested the batches and said yes, this is good.
“Then the data began to come in in October and they began to dig into this data in huge detail.
“She said great progress was made by November 23rd so they had loads of ideas by then.
“They went to the Pfizer site to make sure everything was in order there as well and then they got a separate commission, it is called the Commission on Human Medicines in the UK to look at the thing as well and the bottom line was they granted approval.
“This tells us it was a very rigorous careful process.”
He said UK regulators were able to speed up the process by ensuring they were ready to go the moment any data was published.
“They were good to go,” he said. “The data comes on a rolling basis so Pfizer began giving the data as soon as they had it.
“Usually you get all the data in one big pile and it takes you months to read it but in this case they were getting it drip fed.”
Professor O’Neill said the “big spotlight” is now on the FDA which could approve the vaccine as early as Thursday.
You can listen back here:
