The New York Times reported on Monday that the Trump administration turned down additional quantities of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in late summer. Now Pfizer may not be able to supply more doses to the United States until next June, citing commitments to other countries.
Officials for the administration denied they had turned down the opportunity to purchase additional vaccine doses, CNN reports. On a phone call with reporters Monday evening, a senior official said that negotiations with Pfizer are taking place but would comment publicly on their progression.
“But we feel absolutely confident” and anticipate that there will be a “sufficient number of doses to vaccinate all Americans who desire one before the end of the second quarter of 2021,” the official said.
Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday “to ensure that the United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations.” It was not made clear how the order plans to achieve that.
The signing is scheduled during a vaccine summit taking place at the White House. Representatives from the companies behind the coronavirus vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, will not be in attendance. Instead, the administration felt it would be more appropriate to have “regulators… attend and explain the authorization process to the American people.”
