A coronavirus vaccine trial that was set to get underway in Palm Beach County is on hold.
Researchers were going to test the vaccine on 10 subjects, with study participants receiving two injections of either the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine candidate or a placebo.
The chief investigator for the vaccine trial told the Palm Beach Post that the program is on pause because of what he called "political pressure".
Dr. Larry Bush says the FDA is looking at whether the trial can be bypassed altogether and the vaccine approved using "emergency utilization access."
Bush says the FDA usually approves a vaccine using results only from U.S. trials, not those conducted in other countries and said "there is a group of people" in the high levels of the federal government pushing to bypass the trials.
Referring to himself as "apolitical," Dr. Bush said he thinks "having a pandemic in an election year is a problem."
Local researchers had hoped to enroll hundreds of test subjects by October.
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