Reacting to the announcement of the COVID-19 vaccine by Russia, the United States Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday said that the goal of developing a vaccine is not to be first, but to have one that is safe. Azar made the statement at ABC News show, “Good Morning America.”

“The point is not to be first with the vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world,” Azar said. He also said that the efficacy and safety of the vaccine can be determined only after phase three trials. Russia has not yet released the data of the human trials of Sputnik V– the vaccine it developed.

Azar said that the US is on track and will be able to produce tens of millions of doses of FDA gold-standard vaccine by December, and hundreds of millions of doses going into 2021.

Earlier, top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci had raised concerns about the coronavirus vaccine developed by Russia, adding that the US is unlikely to use them.

Russia is the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine. However, scientists across the globe have raised concerns about the safety of the vaccine. WHO said that it will approve the virus after “a rigorous safety review”.