Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has criticized the government for withholding seven million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as a second dose.
Gottlieb urged the government to vaccinate as many people as possible now with the first dose, which in itself provides some protection against the coronavirus, and is confident that Pfizer will have the second dose ready in time.
“They (Pfizer) are being throttled, and I think the government has admitted that they are. They are holding back doses, ” said Gottlieb, who headed the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to April 2019 and now sits on the Pfizer board.
The pharmaceutical company had shipped three million doses on Thursday, but the Department of Health and Human Services has acknowledged that they still have seven million doses of the vaccine in its warehouse, which were withheld as second doses.
Gottlieb said it is “not the right decision” to leave doses in warehouses as cases, deaths and hospitalizations hit record levels in America.
He argued that there must be ‘confidence’ that production will keep up with the pace people need to get their second injection and that it would be ‘much more valuable from a public health point of view’ to get as many people as possible vaccinated now .
Ex-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has weighed in on vaccine proliferation the government disapproved of for stopping Pfizer jabs from states saying it’s ‘not the right decision’ while ‘we’re at the height of the epidemic’
“I think they should lean forward and try to get more doses into humans now and be sure production will keep up,” Mediaite reports.
“ The 25 million doses that (Pfizer) has promised for December have largely been manufactured and many more batches have been released – I mean, ready to ship than what’s actually being shipped, ” he said.
‘They could ship many more than they are. I think they are trying to manage the supply chain. I think they are trying to get Moderna and Pfizer right. I think they might be concerned that if they put too much vaccine into the supply chain, some of it might go unused.
“I’m not sure what they think,” he added. This is what I would speculate as to why they do that.
‘My advice would be to get as many weapons as possible now, because we are now at the peak of the epidemic, or are entering the peak. And we know that these vaccines are partially protected even after the first dose. ‘
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses taken 21 days apart, with the individual having almost complete protection after the second dose. However, the vaccine also provides some protection after just the first dose.
Meanwhile, the US hit another grim hospital admission record Friday, just days after the country recorded its deadliest day since the start of the pandemic.
Gottlieb, who headed the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to April 2019 and now sits on the Pfizer board, accused the government of “ throttling ” supplies to U.S. states, saying it would be more effective to “ as many shots in arms’ as possible at the moment
The former FDA chief added that more people now being vaccinated would be better for the public as infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States soar to record levels.
“A vaccination this week will be much more valuable from a public health point of view than a vaccination in five weeks,” he said.
“So now I would try to vaccinate more people than they are and as many people as possible.”
‘If we can get more first doses in humans now, you can have an impact on the epidemic we are going through.’
On Thursday, Pfizer released a statement saying it had successfully shipped 2.9 million doses to US states, but that there are “millions of additional doses in our warehouse.”
“But so far, we have not received shipping instructions for additional doses,” said the healthcare giant.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses taken 21 days apart, with the individual having almost complete protection after the second dose. However, the vaccine also provides some protection after just the first dose
Respiratory care practitioner David Hamlin receives a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Valley Childrens Hospital in Madera, California on Wednesday
Senior government officials did not deny the claims, saying that the statement was technically correct, but that this was the plan all along so that anyone who receives the first shot will also get the second.
Federal officials said Pfizer had committed to providing 6.4 million doses of its vaccine in the first week after approval.
But federal Operation Warp Speed planned to distribute just 2.9 million of those doses right away, and a further 2.9 million would be kept in Pfizer’s warehouse to ensure that individuals vaccinated the first week could later get their second injection.
The government is also holding the additional 500,000 doses as a reserve for unforeseen problems.
Pfizer said it remains confident that it can deliver up to 50 million doses worldwide this year and up to 1.3 billion doses by 2021.
Several states complained this week that they had received smaller shipments of the vaccine than expected and that they were also expecting much fewer doses next week, raising concerns about possible delays for health workers and long-term residents to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.
Pfizer said Thursday it had “millions of doses” of its COVID-19 vaccine in warehouses but was still awaiting shipping instructions from the federal government. Above, workers prepare the vaccine for shipment
Boxes of the Pfizer vaccine are prepared for shipment to the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo factory. Government officials then hit back, saying this had always been the plan to make sure people who got the first shot could get the second booster shot.
Illinois governor JB Pritzker said on Wednesday that he feared many Americans will not receive the jabs until some time after the official timeline.
“This development is likely to cut our state’s expected Pfizer shipments by about half this month,” Pritzker said.
“The same goes for the rest of the country.”
On Friday, the FDA approved the distribution of a second COVID-19 vaccine in the US, granting emergency approval for Moderna’s shot, which is 94 percent effective.
Prior to the approval, officials assigned 5.9 million doses of the shot and prepared it to be sent to the states over the next week.
Shipments could start as early as tomorrow and the first jabs will likely start Monday.
The first Americans got the vaccine from Pfizer on Monday.
Sandra Lindsay, a nurse in the intensive care unit in New York, became the first person in the US to receive the vaccine Monday as part of the first phase of the rollout to health professionals.
Hundreds of thousands of people have since been vaccinated, with health workers and residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities being the first to receive the vaccine.
The second phase is expected to start in January 2021 and will include non-essential workers, people with chronic health problems and people over 50.
Young adults and children will be the last to receive the injection from spring 2021.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, hospital admissions hit record levels Friday with 114,751 patients across America.
The number of cases also increased 228,825 in one day, while another 2,751 people died.
