Unpacking Democrats’ vaccines wish list

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the top Democrat on the Senate HELP committee, Patty Murray (Wash.), are out with a new report they’re describing as a “roadmap to getting a safe and effective vaccine to all.” The eight-part report is aspirational, and there’s little chance most of it becomes federal policy under the Trump administration, but it provides the clearest articulation to date of how Democrats believe the U.S. government can make sure safe and effective vaccines are available to all Americans. 

The report also provides some important insights into how Democratic leadership is approaching hot-button issues like vaccine affordability and political interference at the FDA. 

Democrats kind-of-, sort-of tackle vaccine affordability. While the new plan says that vaccines should be “equitably distributed, free and accessible to everyone,” the plan stops short of endorsing, or even mentioning, some of the pricing strategies being pushed by the progressive wing of the Democratic party. Progressives have insisted that the government must demand a reasonable price for a Covid-19 vaccine and threaten to go after a drug maker's patents if they don’t comply. While Schumer and Murray insist that the government should negotiate with drug makers over an eventual vaccine’s price, they stop short of endorsing the use of march-in rights, or more explicit price controls. Instead, they say that the government should mass-purchase a vaccine to distribute to American citizens and negotiate the price during that process. 

Monday-morning quarterbacking the FDA. Democrats are asking the FDA to not approve any vaccine “unless and until science-based evidence – including evidence generated from robust Phase III clinical trials – establishes these vaccines are safe and effective.” They’re also calling on the FDA to require post-marketing safety monitoring and to convene a session of its outside expert vaccine panel before approving any Covid-19 vaccine. The extraordinary level of prescriptive detail is the latest sign that lawmakers are increasingly alarmed that the FDA will approve shoddy vaccines solely to appease Trump.