The nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, addressed the Trump administration’s very public push to get any possible Covid-19 vaccines released by the FDA before Phase 3 trials are complete, intimating he would speak out if he was any political “interference” with the scientific process.

During an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room, Fauci discussed the Trump White House’s Operation Warp Speed, which the president has promised will deliver a vaccine by the end of the year or “maybe even sooner.” However, high-level public health experts outside of the administration have raised serious concerns about skipping any safety and efficacy protocols, calling such a move “incredibly dangerous.”

“Just moments ago, President Trump said we will probably have the vaccine sometime in October,” guest host Jim Acosta noted to Fauci. “Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed [ said he would resign if he saw undue interference in the process. Would you do the same?”

“I’m not a regulator. I just do the science. I report the science in an accurate way,” Fauci said. “Certainly if I saw interference I would be very disturbed and I would call it out. “I am assuming we will not get any interference,””

“You would speak up?” Acosta pressed.

“Of course, as I always do, Jim. You know that.”

“That’s true.”

“A lot of what we are talking about is transparency,” Fauci emphasized. “When the data comes in on the vaccine results, you know, they come in to the Data and the Safety Monitoring Board, an independent group of people who evaluate the data and the safety of it and report on this. This ultimately becomes public knowledge anyway. I have faith in the system that the FDA will do what they promise. And they promise they make decisions on a regulatory basis purely on the basis of the science and the evidence. And I’m counting on them to do that.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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