Trump Turned Down 100m Additional Vaccine Doses
The Claim
Donald Trump said, “Thanks, No Thanks” to ordering more vaccines.
News posted on
Emerging story
In a video posted on Twitter on December 9th, 2020, Heather Gardner alleges that Trump turned down the opportunity to buy 100 million additional doses of the vaccine from Pfizer.
This video has received over 100,000 views on Twitter with many people reacting very negatively to this news.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found this claim to be true. In July, the Trump administration made a deal to acquire 100m doses of the Pfizer vaccine candidate, but the administration turned down an offer to reserve additional doses. This was confirmed by Scott Gottlieb, a current Pfizer board member, and former FDA commissioner.
“Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plan, basically the second-quarter allotment, to the US government multiple times – and as recently as after the interim data came out and we knew this vaccine looked to be effective,” Gottlieb told CNBC.
Gottlieb went on to explain the rationale behind this decision, saying “I think they were betting that more than one vaccine is going to get authorized and there will be more vaccines on the market and that perhaps could be why they didn’t take up that additional 100m option agreement.”
100m doses of the Pfizer vaccine will only cover 50m Americans since this particular vaccine is delivered in two doses. This is roughly one-sixth of the US’s population. However, It seems the decision to pass on securing additional doses of the Pfizer was not a decision by the Trump administration to completely turn their backs on Americans, but rather a bet that other companies would create a similar or better vaccine than Pfizer. As the US comes close to 16m COVID-19 cases, it seems like a missed opportunity.
