Epidemiologist Calls Out Trump For ANOTHER Exit Sabotage Of COVID-19 Vaccination
Former President Donald Trump downplayed COVID-19 while he was in office, but it seems on his way out, he made more than one effort to sabotage the success of the next president. Newly in office, President Joe Biden has promised he’ll take the pandemic head-on and work to get America through it — but it seems he’s been left with some unexpected hurdles.
We recently learned that the Trump Administration had lied about vaccine reserves, allowing states to think they were still coming when they’d already been depleted. Now, epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding is calling out Trump’s team for another spiteful attack on the nation.
2) “For weeks, Pfizer execs pushed officials at Trump FDA to change the wording of vaccine’s emergency use authorization so it formally acknowledged that vials contained 6 doses, not 5. Distinction critical: Pfizer’s contract requires paid by the dose.”https://t.co/I6oWi0bRj6
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 22, 2021
Citing a New York Times piece that can be found in full here, Dr. Feigl-Ding broke down what the Trump team did.
In essence, the vials in question hold five doses. However, as Dr. Feigl-Ding just shared on Friday, President Biden is working to ensure providers have access to a more efficient syringe that can pull six doses from the same bottle.
BREAKING—Biden @WHCOS says Trump admin "fell so far behind" on vaccinations, that supplies are now catching up.
➡️Plus, #COVID19 vaccine supply will increase 20% because Biden has just invoked Defense Production Act to produce a special efficient syringe, says @RonaldKlain. pic.twitter.com/HpwkSA6p3t
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 22, 2021
Here’s the problem. Pfizer has a contract to provide 200 million doses to the U.S., and they lobbied to count the elusive potential sixth dose in each bottle toward that number — allowing them to provide 1/6th fewer vials of the vaccine and still count their contract as filled.
5) “At one point, Pfizer executives lashed out at top federal vaccine regulator over govt reluctance to budge on request. On Jan 6, Pfizer got what it wanted”—Trump FDA changed the language.
➡️ Instead of 1000 vials, Pfizer can now just send 833 vials because of Pfizer lobbying.
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 22, 2021
The extra ‘kick in the teeth’ according to Feigl-Ding? Under the Trump Administration, the FDA approved the change, allowing the pharmaceutical company to provide far fewer vials than the incoming administration expected, on January 6th. That’s the same day the Congress defied Trump by going forward with the election confirmation Constitutionally, rather than finding some way to overturn it for him, the same day that a MAGA mob descended on the Capitol, and the same day that it was again affirmed that Joe Biden would become President of the United States, and begin to act on his promises to address the COVID-19 pandemic more efficiently than the outgoing administration.