The Trump administration turned down an offer from Pfizer to purchase additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine beyond its initial $1.95 billion buy.
The NYT reports: “The vaccine being produced by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, is a two-dose treatment, meaning that 100 million doses is enough to vaccinate only 50 million Americans. The vaccine is expected to receive authorization for emergency use in the U.S. as soon as this weekend, with another vaccine, developed by Moderna, also likely to be approved for emergency use soon.”
The White House denied the NYT report: “An administration official said nobody turned down additional Pfizer doses. The official said the U.S. has contracts with five other companies for a combined guarantee of 3 billion doses as well as the option for more. ‘Anyone who wanted to sell a guarantee, without an EUA [emergency use authorization] approval, hundreds of millions of doses back in July and August, was just not going to get the government’s money,’ the official said.”
Trump plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday prioritizing Americans over anyone in the world to receive the vaccine, The Hill reports: “Trump will sign the order during a White House summit on Operation Warp Speed, the public-private program aimed at accelerating the delivery of a vaccine for COVID-19. ‘The executive order reaffirms to the American people that we’re going to put America first working to ensure that they have access to a vaccine,’ a senior administration official told reporters on a call Monday.”
But, the NYT adds, “the order appears to have no real teeth and does not expand the U.S. supply of doses.”
