If the Trump administration’s desperation for a novel coronavirus vaccine has never been more obvious, public health experts have never been more worried about just how much damage could be done by a premature rollout in the face of a relentless pandemic. In the short term, an insufficiently tested vaccine could make a lot of Americans sick. In the longer term, it could further undermine public confidence in life-saving inoculations, launching pre-existing anti-vaxxer sentiment into a dangerous new mainstream.

“There is a real risk of a catastrophic effect harming large numbers of individuals who get the COVID-19 vaccine,” Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University global health expert, told The Daily Beast.

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