Pfizer Offered To Sell The US Vaccines In June But Trump’s Administration Passed
The Trump Administration said it will still get 100 million doses, but Pfizer told U.S. officials they cannot supply additional vaccine until June or July in 2021.
There’s been a running joke about Trump’s leadership being analogous to the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of the Titanic (the true story and not the fictionalized events in the 1997 film); the ocean liner made waves when it was announced as the largest luxurious cruise liner to be built (out of three others) of its time in the early 1910s.
The ship was not actually dubbed “unsinkable”, nor was it advertised as such. This description most likely came from a misunderstanding from articles in Irish News and Shipbuilder magazine. And although the iceberg was the de facto cause of the ship’s sinking — other events played a role which led to the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
The allegory goes that if Donald Trump were there — he would’ve most certainly have made things worse.
COVID-19 is the iceberg that the US has struck.
Not only would Trump have suggested no one knows more about boats than him, but he would’ve also told people the iceberg didn’t exist. After hitting it, he’d say they didn’t know it occurred. And after that, he’d downplay it — convincing half of the people onboard that the ship will not sink, it was the fault of those who disagreed, and the iceberg was completely unforeseeable. He’d absolve himself from any responsibility, too. Then after surviving, he’d blame all other personnel onboard.
Obviously, the comparison is hyperbole.
And while it might’ve been an inevitability for the Titanic to hit that iceberg — there were certainly options to mitigate its effects like not only carrying only 20 lifeboats and leaving 400 empty seats in said lifeboats: this is an analogy for not passing on doses of a vaccine for a virus that’s already claimed over 280,000 lives.
The Pfizer vaccine isn’t the only promising vaccine but Trump’s Administration had no reason to pass on it
The crew on Titanic ignored an iceberg warning all because their signal didn’t begin with MSG (Master’s Service Gram). This required the captain to directly acknowledge receiving the message. But without the MSG, the Titanic’s radio operator, Jack Phillips, considered the other ship’s warning non-urgent, and didn’t pass it along.
That ignored message is similar to what the Trump Administration did back in 2017.
As mentioned in a previous article — the Trump Administration knew of the threat of a respiratory illness thanks to the efforts of the Pentagon and the military. They accurately detailed just how underprepared our healthcare infrastructure would be if a pandemic struck. This seriously can’t be overstated enough.
We finally know how the deal went down with Pfizer
According to an article by The Washington Post, “Pfizer has told the Trump administration it cannot provide substantial additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine until late June or July because other countries have rushed to buy up most of its supply, according to multiple individuals familiar with the situation.”
Many Trump supporters have tried to ignore the context of the story by pointing out that there are other vaccines becoming available.
But no so fast.
Trump pushed hydroxychloroquine for months, leading many American’s to falsely believe it was going to be their best treatment for COVID-19.
But that didn’t work, and now he’s trying to take credit for the development of a vaccine, which wasn’t exactly a part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) which Pfizer directly denied being apart of, which contradicts what he told American’s months ago.
It would seem that whatever agreement they and the federal government had would see Pfizer getting paid for the tune of $1.95 billion dollars after delivering 100 million doses.
That obviously didn’t happen.
Pfizer has made arrangements with other countries, so it remains to be seen if the Trump Administration can still deliver on the 100 million doses promised to American’s by spring of next year.
One lingering question remains
What was the government’s end game with Pfizer?
There’s been speculation about why the government would turn down Pfizer in June but then still claim 100 million doses were going to be on the way in the spring of 2021.
One theory is Trump and Co. decided they didn’t need Pfizer since they have other vaccines in the pipeline.
Trump plans on hosting an event, an Operation Warp Speed summit, to “celebrate” the development of vaccines which officials from pharmaceutical events have turned down due to concerns about the politicization of the vaccine development process. Moderna’s vaccine, which also boasts 95% effectiveness will potentially come after Pfizer after the Food and Drug Administration meets with them later this month.
Since Trump couldn’t politicize Pfizer and possibly felt jaded; out of pettiness, he’ll opt for making Moderna his bread and butter and pat himself on the back.
The captain of the Titanic, Edward J. Smith, was reported to have used discretion and past experiences to direct the Titanic. Some survivors said he endured until the very end and told crew to save women and children. Others said he was in a state of shock and gave conflicting commands. There might be a mix of both possibilities as it’s hard to say for sure what occurred on that faithful day on April 15, 1912.
The same won’t be said for Trump.
He metaphorically sunk the US with his incompetence, selfishness, and narcissistic behavior.
[Update Tuesday 12/8/20 at 8:56 a.m.]
It was confirmed last night that the Trump Administration did extend invitations to the summit to both Pfizer and Moderna, but both representatives of the companies denied those invitations. This strongly points to Trump wanting to politicize the event to take credit for the vaccine.
