Not just pledge, here's what will build public confidence in Covid vaccine

The Trump administration has exerted relentless political pressure on public health officials to approve a vaccine quickly, with the president pushing for a vaccine by Election Day

Americans are increasingly concerned that regulators and manufacturers will rush a vaccine to market without an adequate review.

That prompted nine vaccine front-runners, including Pfizer and Merck, to promise to abide by clinical and ethical standards in an effort to increase the public’s confidence in any vaccine that ultimately comes to market.

As a scholar of law, public health and bioethics, I have extensively studied vaccine policy, as well as the laws and regulations governing human subject research and FDA-regulated medical products. In my view, the pledge is little more than