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Added on the 29/12/2020 17:10:54 - Copyright : Wochit
General Gustave Perna is chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed. On Saturday, he apologized for a "planning error" that caused dozens of states to expect more vaccine doses than they'll actually get. Dozens of states have said they will receive 30% to 40% fewer doses of Pfizer's vaccine next week than they were expecting. Perna said that was a result of estimates he gave for planning purposes that wound up being incorrect. "I failed," Perna said. "I am adjusting, I am fixing, and we will move forward from there."
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that in November Pfizer offered the Trump Administration more COVID-19 vaccines. Gottlieb says the Trump administration rejected the offer. The NY Times reports that Pres. Trump rejected 100 million doses of Pfizer's recently approved COVID-19 vaccine over the summer. According to Business Insider the COVID-19 vaccine deployment campaign started Monday, December 14th.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo thinks one vaccine could receive FDA emergency authorization. Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is the one he was alluding to on Thursday. An independent advisory panel will vote on whether to recommend an emergency use authorization. Several top health officials have said they expect the vaccine to get authorized on Thursday. However, at least one FDA official has said the process could take up to a week after the panel's vote.
The Wall Street Journal reported Pfizer cut the number of vaccines it planned to ship in 2020. According to Business Insider, this is due to supply chain delays. Sources say Pfizer sourced materials and set up supply chains while developing a vaccine. This is an "unprecedented" move in the world of medicine and vaccine development. But Pfizer and BioNtech maintain they will produce 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. The company says there is no change to Pfizer's vaccine commitment to the US, however.
California biotech company Vaxart is under federal investigation and is being sued by a number of investors. According to CNN, Vaxart was served with a grand jury subpoena in July from the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It's under fire for exaggerating its involvement in the US government's Operation Warp Speed program for developing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Vaxart issued a June press release saying 'Vaxart's Covid-19 Vaccine Selected for the US Government's Operation Warp Speed.' The news pumped Vaxart's stock price from $3 to $17. Hedge fund Armistice Capital, which partly controlled Vaxart, sold its shares, profiting more than $200m. A few weeks before it announced its supposed inclusion in the Operation Warp Speed program, Vaxart granted amendments to its warrants agreements. That allowed Armistice to sell almost all of their stock, which they did once the stock price skyrocketed. In July, the HHS said it had neither entered into a funding agreement nor negotiations with Vaxart.
U.S. President Barack Obama attends an outdoor arrival ceremony in heavy rain, as the first sitting U.S. president to visit Laos. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
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