8月6日，美国总统特朗普在接受采访时称美国有可能在11月3日大选前研制出新冠疫苗。U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday the country could have a coronavirus vaccine before the November 3 election.
"Oh I think, I think in some cases, it's possible before," Trump said during an interview. "But right around that time. We have great companies, great, these are the greatest companies in the world."
和特朗普相比，一些公共卫生专家对于疫苗研发的态度就没那么乐观了。8月7日，素有美国“抗疫队长”之称的传染病专家安东尼·福奇在布朗大学举办的网络研讨会上表示，研发出高效的新冠疫苗可能性不大。“我们还不知道疫苗的有效性是多少。我们不知道是50%还是60%，我希望疫苗的有效性是75%或更高，”福奇说道，“但研发出有效性为98%的新冠疫苗可能性并不大，这意味着你永远不能抛弃那些保持公共卫生的措施。”An approved coronavirus vaccine could end up being effective only 50-60 percent of the time, meaning public health measures will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, said on Friday. "We don't know yet what the efficacy might be. We don't know if it will be 50 percent or 60 percent. I'd like it to be 75 percent or more," Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Brown University. "But the chances of it being 98 percent effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach."
当地时间2020年7月31日，美国纽约，纽约公立图书馆前的大理石狮子被戴上口罩，提醒民众注意防护。此前美国一些州为了恢复经济，全面重新“开放”，导致了疫情出现反弹。包括福奇在内的公共卫生专家都一再强调民众在现阶段应该遵守各项卫生措施，包括保持社交距离、勤洗手、戴口罩等。As infections have spiked around the country after states started to open up, public health experts, including Fauci, have stressed the importance of steps that each American can take, including social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks. 对于疫苗的研发进度，福奇在接受采访时曾预估，2021年初美国可能会有数千万剂新冠疫苗，2021年底疫苗数量可达10亿剂。福奇还提到，尽管白宫方面希望11月前就有一种疫苗可用，但监管部门已保证“不会让政治压力干扰疫苗获批时间”。
Fauci said earlier this week that he expects tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to be available by early 2021, and a billion doses by the end of that year. He also said political pressure will not determine when a coronavirus vaccine is approved.
8月7日，美国食品药品监督管理局局长史蒂芬·哈恩也就疫苗的监管保障在《美国医学会杂志》上撰文。
哈恩表示，鉴于新冠疫苗可能会被广泛使用，需要引入独立专家审查候选疫苗，并依据现有的医疗产品法律法规标准，以确保获批上市疫苗的安全性和有效性。On Friday, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the country will need to have independent experts review COVID-19 vaccine candidates before approval. He said COVID-19 vaccine candidates will be reviewed according to established legal and regulatory standards for medical products, including by an outside advisory committee. "Given the widespread potential use of a COVID-19 vaccine, transparent discussion at FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will be needed," Hahn and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 在文章中哈恩还指出，美国政府推出名为“曲速行动”（Operation Warp Speed）的计划加速新冠疫苗、药物的科研攻关，但政府对疫苗研发速度的强调引发了公众对疫苗安全性和有效性的焦虑和担忧。
The U.S. government's Operation Warp Speed aims to expedite development of a vaccine and therapies to treat the novel coronavirus, and the emphasis on speed has provoked public anxiety about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines, Hahn and the other officials wrote.