White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany Tuesday rebuffed reports the Trump administration rejected an offer from Pfizer to sell the government 100 million more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine last summer, resulting in potential shortages as the vaccine rollout moves forward.
"It's just simply not true that they offered extra doses, according to the people who are involved in the negotiations," McEnany told Fox News' "Fox & Friends." "With each and every company, we contracted for 100 million doses, so it's just simply not the case that we were offered more and rejected them."
The New York Times and The Washington Post are both reporting Pfizer last summer urged the administration's Operation Warp Speed to buy 200 million doses of the vaccine, which would be enough to provide 100 million people with the two-shot treatment. Pfizer moved on to finalize deals with other countries and regions, including the European Union, which has agreed to buy 200 million units of the vaccine.
McEnany's comments came before President Donald Trump's summit planned for Tuesday afternoon to encourage people to get their shots, and she said there is a problem because polls show just 6 out of 10 Americans are ready to agree to get the vaccination.
"It needs to be higher than that," she said. "This is a vaccine that President Trump got us in record time, and it usually takes four to 25 years [to develop]. President Trump got it in just 10 months."
The FDA is expected to approve Pfizer's vaccine on an emergency use authorization this week, with Moderna's to follow next week.
McEnany also spoke out against states' closures of restaurants and other businesses, calling Democrats "anti-science" and "anti-Constitution" because of their measures.
"There never was science showing that schools should shut down because kids were super spreaders," McEnany said. "That didn't exist. President Trump said that and here we are many months later and the science once again is on our side – as it's always been."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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