“If the FDA says ‘We have to slow this down,’ is the administration okay with that?” Baier pressed.

” If science and data and the legal constructs say slow down, then we slow down,” Azar said, before quickly pivoting to touting the ‘historic progress” of Operation Warp Speed. But he then again appeared to diverge from Trump’s claims, saying the country could have “100 million doses of FDA gold standard by the end of the year.”

“[The FDA] It will not compromise on safety and efficacy standards and there’s many checks built into the system, [including] an independent data and safety monitoring board,” Azar added.”The FDA will call the balls and strikes by career officials according to the safety and efficacy centers that they have released publicly.”