Well-known American pharmaceutical company Pfizer released good news: preliminary Phase III clinical data showed that a Coronavirus vaccine developed by the company and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech was not only effective than 90% , And no security issues have been reported for the time being. The company also stated that it will apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for an “emergency use authorization” (EUA) after obtaining further safety data, so that susceptible people can use the vaccine as soon as possible.
At present, this news has attracted widespread attention from mainstream American media, but a strange thing has also emerged…
It turned out that just after Pfizer announced the good news, officials and supporters of the Trump administration began to thank Trump, saying that Pfizer’s vaccine could achieve such results without Trump and his leadership. A rapid vaccine development project called “Ultra High Speed Action”.
As shown in the figure below, US Vice President Pence wrote on his social account: Pfizer can develop a vaccine with a 90% effective rate in clinical trials, “Thanks to the public-private partnership project established by President Trump.”
Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nicky Haley also declared that Pfizer can bring such good news, thanks to Trump and his “Operation Warp Speed” project for promoting rapid vaccine development.
“This will be one of the most important measures taken by the Trump administration in response to the pandemic,” Heili said.
May be surprising is that in the United States, “New York Times” the latest a report Kathleen Jensen, senior vice president of vaccine research and development in terms of Pfizer has said that Pfizer developed the vaccine this has nothing to do with Trump authorities, Pfizer did not In the process of developing a vaccine, he has received any funding from the Trump administration.
Jason also told the newspaper that although the Trump administration had approached Pfizer in July this year and offered to invest US$1.95 billion to pre-purchase 100 million doses of the company’s Coronavirus vaccine and then distribute it to Americans for free, she was because They did not want to get involved in Trump’s politics, so they did not participate in this project like other American pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, Pfizer’s vaccine research and development did not involve any Trump administration funds.
“We have never been a part of the’Super Speed Project’ program,” Johnson told the New York Times. “We have never received any money from the US government.”
(The screenshot is from the original report of the New York Times)
However, judging from an official notice issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services on July 22, the Trump administration did reach an agreement with Pfizer. The main content of the agreement is that once Pfizer develops an effective Coronavirus vaccine, it will hand over the first 100 million doses to the US government and distribute it to the country after obtaining emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. . The US government will pay $1.95 billion for this batch of vaccines.
(The screenshot is from the official website of the US Department of Health and Human Services)
Moreover, Pfizer’s official website also issued a statement at the time, saying that they had reached a vaccine procurement agreement with the US government.
In other words, what the Trump administration and Pfizer reached is a vaccine production and distribution agreement, which is indeed not related to vaccine development. But on the other hand, Pfizer did sign an agreement with the Trump administration and its “super high-speed operations”, and it was not that it did not participate.
(The screenshot is from Pfizer’s official website)
From this point of view, the party praising Trump and the party claiming that Trump has nothing to do with Pfizer’s vaccine have actually been “biased.” And this “bias” also caused Trump’s supporters and opponents to quarrel online.
As shown in the figure below, an editor in The New York Times quoted the newspaper’s report that Trump has nothing to do with Pfizer’s vaccine, and quoted Pfizer executive Jason as saying, “We have never been part of the Trump project. After saying this, a netizen who supported Trump immediately posted a statement that Pfizer had reached an agreement with the US government on July 22.
Then, a netizen who disliked Trump proposed that buying vaccines and supporting vaccine research and development are different, but another Trump supporter fought back: Although the two are different, the government promised to buy and also This has benefited pharmaceutical companies in many ways, such as easier access to investment and rising stock prices.
Finally, among these praises, oppositions, and quarrels about Trump, a tweet published by Trump’s daughter Ivanka praising the Trump administration is more “accurate”.
She said: “Thanks to the tireless dedication of the’Super Speed Operation’ and the cooperation between the project and Pfizer, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the military in support (vaccine) distribution and logistics in July, Pfizer can now Large-scale production and distribution of more than 100 million doses of vaccine across the country!”
