⁍ Azar was speaking in person, with a mask on, to a congressional hearing.

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⁍ He tweeted that he tested negative for COVID-19 after protectively being screened.

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⁍ Six drugmakers that are receiving U.S. government funding for COVID-19 vaccine development have begun scaling up manufacturing.

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– Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Friday said he had tested negative for COVID-19 and defended the US Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of coronavirus vaccines under development, Reuters reports. Azar was speaking in person, with a mask on, to a congressional hearing. He tweeted that he tested negative for COVID-19 after protectively being screened following news of President Trump’s positive test. “Out of an abundance of caution I was tested for COVID-19 this morning and the result was negative. I will be testifying before Congress as scheduled,” Azar tweeted. Azar was speaking in person, with a mask on, to a congressional hearing. “I will be confident that my family and I should take the (COVID-19) vaccine … because any vaccine will have met FDA’s standards,” he said at the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Scientists, public health officials, and lawmakers are worried that the Trump administration will pressure the FDA to authorize a COVID-19 vaccine in advance of the Nov. 3 presidential election, even if data from clinical trials does not support its widespread use.