Beaming Trump hails vaccine as a ‘miracle’
President Donald Trump celebrated the expected approval of the first US vaccine for the coronavirus yesterday as the White House worked to instil confidence in the massive distribution effort that will largely be executed by President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump said the expected approvals were coming before most people thought possible. ‘‘They say it’s somewhat of a miracle and I think that’s true,‘‘ he declared.
Trump led yesterday’s White House event celebrating ‘‘Operation Warp Speed,’’ his administration’s effort to produce and distribute safe and effective vaccines for Covid-19. The first vaccine, from drugmaker Pfizer, is expected to receive endorsement by a panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers as soon as this week, with delivery of 100 million doses – enough for 50 million Americans – expected in coming months.
Pfizer developed its vaccine outside of ‘‘Operation Warp Speed,’’ but is partnering with the federal government onmanufacturing and distribution.
England began its first vaccinations on Tuesday, to great fanfare, as the world mounts its fight against the pandemic that has killed more than 285,000 Americans and some 1.5 million people worldwide.
Trump used yesterday’s event to sign an executive order in which the secretary of Health and Human Services is directed to ensure that Americans have priority access to the vaccine.
A senior administration official said the order would restrict the federal government from delivering doses to other nations until there is excess supply to meet domestic demand, but it was not immediately clear what the practical impact would be.
The ‘‘Operation Warp Speed’’ event featured Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of government experts, state leaders and business executives, as the White House looked to explain that the vaccine is safe and lay out the administration’s plans to bring it to the American people. But officials from Biden’s transition team, which will oversee the bulk of the largest vaccination programme in the nation’s history once he takes office January 20, were not invited.
Speaking inWilmington, Delaware, Biden promised to distribute ‘‘100 million shots in the first 100 days‘‘ of his administration – roughly on pace with Trump’s projections for vaccination.
Though Trump was taking credit for the pace of vaccine development, much of the groundwork was laid over the past decade, amid new research into messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines – of the sort developed by both Pfizer and Moderna.
The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of outside vaccine experts is to meet on Friday to conduct a final review of the Pfizer vaccine, and it will meet later this month on the Moderna version.
FDA decisions on the two vaccines are expected within days of each meeting. –