“In the long term, a careful, thorough FDA review will probably benefit us more,” said Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, who focuses on vaccine issues. “The people who have concerns won’t be reassured by something that looks like a hasty approval.” Ensuring the FDA’s decision appears politics-free is especially important when considering the biggest remaining group of unvaccinated Americans, Gounder said: Voters in red states who did not support Biden’s campaign and aren’t inclined to trust his administration. “The people who we haven’t been able to reach with educational outreach or trusted messengers or incentives are largely white Republican voters,” Gounder said. “This is a group for which I think it’s really important that the FDA approval process does not appear to be contaminated by outside pressure or political interference, because this is so much about building trust.”