Trump gets measured praise and criticism as COVID-19 vaccines sprint to finish line

As COVID-19 tears through the global economy, an effective vaccine remains the only hope of extinguishing the raging fire of infections, which have sent hospitalizations and deaths skyrocketing to record levels.

However, the glimmers of hope by two vaccine candidates from Pfizer (PFE)/BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA) have fanned optimism in the markets while underpinning growth expectations in the medium term. Both treatments appear headed toward expedited approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and could be deployed within weeks, if not days.

President Donald Trump has been widely criticized for fumbling major elements of the federal response that contributed to the U.S. becoming a global epicenter of the outbreak. So does he still deserve credit for the record-breaking development of a vaccine, which usually takes years?

According to at least some observers, the answer is a qualified yes.

To be certain, Trump and his administration have not been shy about claiming credit for the rapid pace of vaccine development.

Still, as he prepares to exit the White House, the government’s botched handling of the crisis may forever taint his legacy. The litany of polarizing controversies about masks, treatments, and social distancing protocols were detailed in a blistering Congressional report that accused the administration of demonstrating one of “the worst failures of leadership in American history.”

Trump may deserve some credit

Yet as hopes build that the public will begin getting immunized by next year, history may yet judge Trump more kindly than current headlines suggest.

Some of the president’s fiercest antagonists have come from within the scientific community. However, observers have applauded Operation Warp Speed for its success in funding Moderna’s cutting-edge development of mRNA technology that helped it develop a vaccine candidate with nearly 95% efficacy, while securing 100 million doses via a deal with Pfizer that’s worth nearly $2 billion.

And in an administration beset by a revolving door of senior departures, the original decision earlier this year to tap veteran pharmaceutical executive Moncef Slaoui as Warp Speed’s lead has drawn praise.

Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at Roosevelt Investments, told Yahoo Finance recently that vaccine development “has historically been slow and underfunded,” primarily because of safety concerns.

Yet in the face of those concerns, the administration “marshaled expert personnel and significant resources to assist vaccine producers in moving at unprecedented speeds to develop and test candidates for emergency use. For this it certainly deserves credit.”

‘The devil’s in the details’

Indeed, Moderna’s success is arguably the most striking exponent of the federal government’s involvement in developing the vaccine, given the startup’s lack of a track record and short life as a pharmaceutical company.

Nevertheless, its candidate is neck and neck with Pfizer/Bio-N-Tech for a high efficacy rate, which has sparked a breathtaking rally on Wall Street and fueled growth expectations. Morgan Stanley recently referred to Moderna’s treatment — which received around $2.5 billion in funding — as “a best-in-class vaccine given the very robust efficacy against severe cases.”

For those reasons, public health experts like Daniel B. Fagbuyi, a Maryland-based physician and former Obama administration appointee to the National Biodefense Science Board, offer measured praise for the “herculean effort” to develop a vaccine in under a year.

“In this case [Operation Warp Speed] has at least on the surface been a success. To know we have at least two potential vaccine candidates, that is huge,” Fagbuyi told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview.

“Yes it does deserve credit. Now the devil’s in the details, but I’m cautiously optimistic,” he added, but faulted Trump’s politicizing of the process and his rejection of expert opinion.

“It makes you have ambivalent feelings about the goals and intentions,” Fagbuyi added. And experts say that Trump’s aggressive public advocacy was likely to negatively the public’s perception of whether the vaccine is safe, as well as their willingness to take it.

Indeed, a Yahoo-Finance-Harris poll released in October said that 63% of Americans were more concerned about taking a COVID-19 vaccine than other vaccines — suggesting the pitched battles that dominated mask wearing will make the challenge of getting the public vaccinated that much harder.

“Unfortunately, I think that vaccination will become politicized, and this is tragic,” said Sharona Hoffman, a law and bioethics professor at Case Western Reserve University law school who believes Trump deserves credit for funding the successful vaccine research and development effort.

“On the positive side, however, vaccines will be approved by the FDA after Trump lost the election, so there is less reason to believe that they are doing so under election-related pressure from him,” Hoffman told Yahoo Finance.

“Hopefully, the public will have confidence that the FDA scrutinized the data carefully and provided emergency use authorization responsibly,” she added.

‘The very communities that will be reluctant to get it’

Force multipliers like history, culture, and socioeconomic disparities will make any public vaccination campaign a stiff challenge, according to Suzet McKinney, CEO/Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District.

She told Yahoo Finance recently that the most vulnerable and low-income communities considered most at risk “are some of the very communities that will be reluctant to get it.”

Calling for “robust” state and local level campaigns, McKinney added that officials are “are going to have to think creatively. And [President-elect Joe Biden] is already showing us that the federal government will be there to help, so I am confident that we can make great inroads in reestablishing public trust.”

Still, the biggest challenge to reestablishing that trust could also be the vaccine’s saving grace — that it was developed in record time.

Vaccine makers like Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and AstraZeneca (AZN) also have a role to play in convincing the public they didn’t cut corners to manufacture a shot, as well as managing cultural sensitivities, experts say.

“The elephant in the room is Black people in general, and other people of color feeling as if they are being made into guinea pigs for medical experiments,” said Fagbuyi. He referred to historical events like the notorious Tuskegee study of syphilis on non-consenting Black men.

He urged companies not to “sweep it under the rug. It is deeply rooted and it’s like a post-traumatic stress disorder and it needs to be addressed with sensitivity.”

Javier David is an editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow Javier on Twitter: @TeflonGeek

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