[ad_1]
Manuel Balce Ceneta
As the first corona vaccine, the drug from Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer received emergency approval in the US The vaccine can now be used in people 16 years of age and older, the US pharmaceutical agency announced. FDA on Friday night (local time). FDA chief Stephen Hahn spoke of a “major milestone in the fight against this devastating pandemic.” According to media reports, the White House is said to have previously threatened the FDA with urgent emergency approval.
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, promised his compatriots the first vaccines this weekend after approval. “The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours,” Trump announced in a video posted on Twitter. Your government has already started shipping the vaccine. Trump emphasized that vaccines are free for all Americans.
Trump speaks of “greatest scientific achievement”
Regarding the development of the vaccine in record time, he said: “This is one of the greatest scientific achievements in history.” The vaccine will save millions of lives “and end the pandemic once and for all.”
Trump presented the development as a success for his administration: the United States was “the first country in the world” to produce a provably safe and effective vaccine. However, this is not the case, as the US company Pfizer was a partner in the development of the vaccine by the German company Biontech. The product is already being produced outside of the US and is even being used in some countries.
Pfizer and Biontech filed an emergency approval application with the FDA last month. They were the first Western manufacturers to publish promising study results and apply for such approval. An application has also been submitted to the European Medicines Agency (Ema) for approval of the corona vaccine in the EU, but a decision is still pending.
The British issued an emergency approval a month ago
Earlier this month, the UK Pharmaceuticals Regulatory Authority granted the Biontech / Pfizer preparation an emergency approval. Britain became the first country in the world to approve the vaccine. Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico have now approved the vaccine as well.
According to media reports, the White House is said to have urged FDA chief Hahn to immediately approve the vaccine with threats on Friday. The Washington Post reported that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had asked Hahn to resign if the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine was not approved before the end of the day. The New York Times reported that Meadows had told Hahn that if he didn’t, he should consider looking for another job.
Hahn himself spoke in a statement to the US media, however, of “a false representation of the phone call with the chief of staff.” The FDA was “encouraged” to expeditiously process the application from Biontech and Pfizer. The “New York Times” reported that the authority had planned approval for Saturday morning. It is unclear what the benefits are of speeding up approval in half a day.
Trump lobbied the FDA
Trump himself increased the pressure on the FDA on Friday. He criticized the authority as a “big, old, slow tortoise.” He wrote on Twitter: “Give the damn vaccines now, Dr. Gallo. Stop playing games and start saving lives !!!” Trump had lobbied the agency several times in the past to approve vaccines and corona therapies. They had. harshly criticized for it.
Republican Trump lost the US election on November 3 to Democrat Joe Biden. Experts also attribute this to Trump’s crisis management of the pandemic, which Americans have been giving poor grades in polls for months. Biden is due to be sworn in on January 20. Immediately afterwards, the Democrat wants to start a 100-day plan to combat the corona virus. Part of the program is to administer at least 100 million doses of a vaccine within this period.
The pandemic is still out of control in the United States. By Wednesday, the number of deaths in a single day had exceeded 3,000 for the first time. Biden called the high death toll from coronavirus a “tragic milestone” and said: “There are more deaths in a single day than we had on September 11 or at Pearl Harbor.” Biden referred to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) in December 1941. According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the number of new infections recorded in the US days each passed by more than 200,000.
The United States government has contractually secured the delivery of 100 million doses of Pfizer / Biontech vaccines. The American pharmaceutical company Moderna announced on Friday that the American government was purchasing another 100 million doses of its candidate vaccine. These cans would be delivered in the second quarter of next year.
Of the first 100 million units already purchased by the US, Moderna would ship 20 million this month, with the remaining 80 million in the first quarter of 2021. The US would also have the option to purchase 300 million more cans of Modern The Moderna vaccine has not yet been approved by the FDA. An advisory committee wants to discuss this next Thursday. (SDA)
