The White House wasn’t notified before Britain approved the use of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday.
“I’m not aware of any heads-up that we were given,” McEnany said during an afternoon briefing.
The unexpected move by the UK put it at least a week ahead of the US in dispensing the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, which could begin in Britain within days.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration isn’t scheduled to consider authorizing emergency use of the vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech until Dec. 10.
COVID-19 has killed more than 270,000 Americans and about 60,000 Brits.
President Trump has been demanding to know why the FDA isn’t moving faster to approve the vaccine, according to Politico.
Earlier this week, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reportedly grilled FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and other top agency officials over the delay.
A senior official involved in the process called it “crazy to imagine the European Union or UK may approve a vaccine developed in the United States before us,” Politico said. The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is widely credited with leading to the quick Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca breakthroughs.
Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency recommended emergency use of the experimental vaccine following clinical trials that showed it was 95 percent effective and caused no serious side effects among tens of thousands of volunteers.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the “searchlights of science” had picked out the “invisible enemy” and hailed the vaccine’s developers for performing “biological jujitsu” that turns the deadly virus on itself.
Amid growing concern in the U.S. that Americans will greet vaccines with skepticism, Azar said Britain’s decision “should give Americans additional confidence in the quality of such a vaccine.”
Other countries aren’t far behind: Regulators not only in the U.S. but in the European Union and Canada also are vetting the Pfizer vaccine along with a shot made by Moderna. British and Canadian regulators are also considering a vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
With Post wires
White House says Britain didn't tell US about COVID vaccine approval - New York Post
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