UK education secretary on vaccine: ‘We’re a much better country’ than US

The U.K.’s education secretary on Thursday said the country was the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine because it is “a much better country” than the United States, France and Belgium. 

During an interview on London-based radio station LBC, Gavin Williamson praised the U.K. for its approval of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, making it the first Western nation to do so. 

“I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators, much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have,” Williamson told host Nick Ferrari. “That doesn’t surprise me at all, because we’re a much better country than every single one of them.”

This is the moment Gavin Williamson told @NickFerrariLBC the UK was the first to approve a vaccine because “we’re a much better country”pic.twitter.com/1PtkOJ1CeB

— Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) December 3, 2020

European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer responded Thursday saying that while experts at Britain’s Medicines and Health care products Regulatory Agency are “very good,” the European Union was “definitely not in the game of comparing regulators across countries, nor on commenting on claims as to who is better,” according to the BBC. 

The BBC also reported that a source close to Williamson said that his statements on the radio show were meant to “praise the scientific brilliance of the regulator, but he is known to be enthusiastically patriotic and that enthusiasm clearly shone through in what was a broadly light-hearted conversation with the studio host.” 

The U.K.’s approval of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which data showed to be 95 percent effective, means that the vaccinations will start to be distributed to higher risk populations as early as next week. 

Some have criticized the U.K.’s rapid move, with Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert in the U.S., saying Thursday that the U.K. “really rushed through” its approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

“In all fairness to so many of my U.K. friends, they kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined in at the last mile,” Fauci told CBS correspondent Major Garrett on “The Takeout” podcast.

Fauci added that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is “the gold standard of regulation,” and applauded the agency for not rushing to approve a vaccine, which he said would only fuel skepticism about it.

“We have enough problem with people being skeptical about taking vaccine anyway, if we had jumped over the hurdle here quickly and inappropriately to gain an extra week or a week and a half, I think that the credibility of our regulatory process would be damaged,” he said.

The FDA is set to make a decision on emergency use authorization of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine candidate as early as next week. It must be stored around negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit, with Pfizer saying it has developed technology that will properly regulate the temperature.