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Gottlieb said that though the company has committed doses to other countries, there’s still some hope of the U.S. getting more before June.
“I think they’re going to work this out,” he said. “I think hopefully we’ll find a way to increase supply and be able to get the government what the government needs. This is an American company, we want to work with the U.S. government. But this has been a challenging process because there have been multiple conversations happening as recently as November, and now they’re coming back and wanting to restart those conversations when other commitments have been made in the interim.”
The additional doses are not a sure thing, though, and they could have been turned into a sure thing at a time when Pfizer was a known good bet. In addition to the 100 million doses of vaccine the U.S. originally contracted with Pfizer for, there will be 100 million doses from Moderna, with contracts for more doses of other vaccines still in trials to follow. But, as Mark Sumner wrote, “The way that Operation Warp Speed spread its money around seems designed to prevent wedding the U.S. to any single solution and promote the development of a variety of vaccines. But by failing to adjust its response to the status of those vaccines as they moved through the pipeline, it made absolutely certain that unless all of the vaccines were successful and fast, the nation would not be able to meet the demand for vaccines until late in 2021. This did not have to happen.”
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