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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking states to have a plan in place to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as late October — but that doesn't mean an effective treatment will be ready quite so soon. In separate interviews Thursday with NPR, the chief scientific adviser to the Trump administration's vaccine development effort and the former director of the CDC's office of public health preparedness cautioned that an effective vaccine is likely still months away. (Silva, 9/3)

Dr. Slaoui confirmed that the two main candidates, referred to as Vaccine A and Vaccine B, were being developed by Pfizer and Moderna. He said that there was “no intent” to introduce a vaccine before clinical trials were completed, and that trials would only be completed when an independent safety monitoring board, separate from the government, affirmed the effectiveness of the vaccine. (9/3)

Talking to ScienceInsider today, Slaoui insisted he won’t be swayed by political pressures to rush an unsafe or ineffective vaccine, and that science will carry the day—or he’ll quit. Slaoui has given few interviews since taking the Warp Speed job and he has taken something of a beating in the media for his financial holdings in companies working on COVID-19 vaccines—he was on the board of Moderna and has since stepped down, but he retains his GlaxoSmithKline stock. And Warp Speed has been slammed for a lack of transparency on its decisions. (Cohen, 9/3)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that he believes federal regulators will allow a coronavirus vaccine to be distributed this fall only if it’s based on science and “hard data.” Fauci made the assessment after the disclosure of an Aug. 27 letter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that told states to prepare for the “large-scale” distribution of a vaccine by Nov. 1, two days before the presidential election. (Stelloh and Allen, 9/3)

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said he would feel comfortable taking a coronavirus vaccine if one is approved by the government. “I mean I will look at the data and I would assume and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the case that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was indeed both safe and effective. And I keep emphasizing both safe and effective. If that’s the case, Jim, I would not hesitate for a moment to take the vaccine myself and recommend it for my family,” he told CNN anchor Jim Sciutto on Thursday. (Axelrod, 9/3)