Multiple companies working to develop the COVID-19 vaccine will soon release a public pledge that says they will not seek government approval until they know the vaccine is safe, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- The companies — including Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc. — will release a statement that promotes safety over everything else with the vaccine.
The pledge could be released next week, WSJ reports.
- “We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines that may ultimately be approved and adherence to the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which they are evaluated,” a draft of the statement said, per WSJ.
Why it matters
- According to The Hill, the joint statement represents a weird moment where competing companies are joined together over how to release the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Per USA Today, two-thirds of Americans said they won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine when it’s first available out of safety.
“I feel like their testing is a trial and error,” Ebony Dew, an independent from Capitol Heights, Maryland, told USA Today. “And I also feel that they don’t really know all that much about this virus, so how can they create a cure for it just yet?”