Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on reports out of Palm Beach that vaccine trials have been cut short due to political pressure:

“Let’s be 100% clear on what is happening here: President Trump is putting his own political agenda and timeline ahead of science, reality and fact so he can create an ‘October Surprise’ and a vaccine before Election Day. Trump is not interested in the people’s health, he is only interested in the health of his re-election campaign. And in politicizing this process, he is putting public health at grave risk.

“His so-called ‘Operation Warp Speed’ is handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to the largest players in the industry with no transparency, accountability or guarantee of affordability. And doing so all in a desperate attempt to distract from his Administration’s failed response to the coronavirus and his many broken promises about lowering drug prices and making medicines affordable. Meanwhile drug corporations keep raising prices and Trump’s pharma cronies are making millions off of stock speculation on a vaccine funded with our taxpayer money.

“This Administration has politicized everything from the FDA to the intelligence community and bent the government to the breaking point in order to serve the political needs of Donald Trump. Continuing this abusive pattern with vaccines is going to have deadly consequences.”