Elizabeth Warren slammed the “huge conflict of interest,” and demanded Moncef Slaoui “divest immediately.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has slammed COVID-19 vaccine czar Moncef Slaoui’s “huge conflict of interest” after required federal filings revealed he holds $10 million in stock options in one of the companies working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
Warren demanded that Slaoui “divest immediately.”
Elizabeth Warren
✔@SenWarren
It is a huge conflict of interest for the White House’s new vaccine czar to own $10 million of stock in a company receiving government funding to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Slaoui should divest immediately. https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/15/trump-audacious-plan-vaccine-covid19/ …
Trump unveils audacious plan to develop Covid-19 vaccine by end of 2020
Trump deputies left no ambiguity: Drug companies and the government, they said, will manufacture “hundreds of millions” of vaccine doses by the end of 2020.
statnews.com
Slaoui, a former pharmaceutical executive, was named “chief scientist” on Friday for President Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” a COVID-19 vaccine development operation. In order to take the new role, he stepped down from his position on the board of directors of biotech company Moderna Inc., which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But Slaoui still owns 155,000 Moderna stock options, totaling more than $10 million as of Friday, according to Business Insider. Continue reading.