Energy & Commerce Committee Holds Virtual Hearing on COVID-19 Vaccine

On September 30, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee (of the Energy & Commerce (E&C) Committee) held a virtual hearing (Pathway to a Vaccine: Ensuring a Safe and Effective Vaccine People Will Trust) with public health experts on the continued oversight of the development and safety of potential COVID-19 vaccines. Key witnesses from the hearing included:

• Helene Gayle, M.D., M.P.H., Co-Chair, Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
• Ashish K. Jha, Dean, M.D., M.P.H., Dean, School of Public Health, Brown University
• Ali S. Kahn, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., Dean, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Founding Director, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Duke University
• Paul A. Offit, M.D., Director, Vaccine Education Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

The E&C website contains the videos from the hearing. The key takeaways from the hearing include:

• There are many safeguards in place for a COVID-19 vaccine approval process;
• All the guardrails in place should make it difficult to politicize the COVID-19 vaccine approval process;
• The emergency use authorization process is similar to full approval;
• Unlike Russia and China, the United States is only going to approve or authorize COVID-19 vaccines with large phase 3 clinical trials that meet high safety and efficacy standards;
• No corners are being cut; and
• States are not able to replicate FDA’s gold standard of vaccine review.