President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at prioritizing shipment of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans over other countries as the United States inches closer to authorizing the first shots.
Trump said the order is meant “to ensure that American citizens have first priority to receive American vaccines.” He signed the order, which will not expand the vaccine supply in the U.S., at an event to promote the accomplishments of Operation Warp Speed, his administration’s vaccine development initiative.
“We’re going to be working with other countries all over the world, and I think we’ll be able to start doing that almost immediately, also because we have millions of doses coming in,” Trump said.
The move comes amid reports that the administration turned down an offer from Pfizer, the drug giant behind the leading vaccine candidate, to purchase millions of additional doses for Americans. Now, Pfizer is unsure whether it will be able to provide supplies beyond the agreed-upon 100 million.
Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, and other members of the coronavirus task force attended the event, as well as Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operations officer for Operation Warp Speed. President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team was not invited to participate in the event.
The CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna, manufacturers of the only vaccines to have petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorizations, declined invitations to the event.
An FDA advisory committee will publicly examine data submitted by Pfizer on Thursday. The FDA has already concluded that it could find “no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA” for Pfizer’s vaccine. A similar public hearing for Moderna’s vaccine is set for Dec. 17.
