During a press conference on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that she is concerned that the United Kingdom’s system for approving a coronavirus vaccine “is not on a par with ours in the United States. So, if Boris Johnson decides he’s going to approve a drug and this president embraces that, that’s a concern that I have about any similarity between the two.”

Pelosi said, “I think we have to be very careful about what happens in the U.K., the — we have very stringent rules in terms of the Food and Drug Administration here about the number of clinical trials, the timing, the number of people, and all the rest, so that when a drug is approved by the FDA and the advisory — Scientific Advisory Committee, that it is safe and efficacious, then it will have the trust of the American people to take it. Vaccines are about trust. We want people to take it. So, we pray that it is soon. The sooner, the better, not one day sooner than it is safe and efficacious, but not one day later either. And my concern is that the U.K.’s system for that kind of judgment is not on a par with ours in the United States. So, if Boris Johnson decides he’s going to approve a drug and this president embraces that, that’s a concern that I have about any similarity between the two.”

(h/t Financial Times)

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