by Mary Rose Corkery
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on CNN Monday that the U.S. is seeking to double its COVID-19 vaccine order.
“So far, we have an agreement with the U.S. Government to provide them 100 million doses and this is a fixed order and we will provide those 100 million doses starting from now by the end of the first quarter and we will honor this commitment,” Bourla told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on “New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.”
Trucks and cargo planes loaded with the beginning of almost three million doses of the vaccine shipped out on Sunday throughout the U.S., The New York Times reported. In every state, hospitals were quickly setting up injection sites and their workers were monitoring the shipments every hour.
“We are trying to — we can provide them the additional 100 million doses, but right now most of that we can provide in the third quarter. The U.S. government wants them in the second quarter,” Bourla said.
“So we’re working very collaboratively with them to make sure that we can find ways to produce more or allocate the doses in the second quarter as well. But we haven’t signed this agreement yet,” Bourla told Gupta.
The first vaccine was administered a little bit after 9:00 a.m on Monday morning at Long Island Jewish Medical Center located in Queens, New York, the NYT reported.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization on Friday after a key panel approved the vaccine’s safety by a large margin. Pfizer and BioNTech announced in November that their vaccines were over 90% effective in their Phase Three clinical trial.
President Donald Trump tweeted at FDA Commissioner Dr. Steven M. Hahn to “get the dam vaccines out NOW” following the vaccine’s approval.
While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic @US_FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn @SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020
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Mary Rose Corkery is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
