Donald Trump fears that the United States will run out of doses after the initial phase of vaccination.
To protect himself from a possible shortage, the American president signed a decree on Tuesday that according to him will give priority to deliveries of vaccines to the country before export.
The executive order will "ensure that the US government gives priority to vaccinating US citizens, before sending vaccines to other countries," says Trump, while Pfizer / BioNTech, whose vaccine could be authorized in the very next days, only has a contract for 100 million doses with the United States.
The American Moderna, whose vaccine could be authorized at the end of next week, has also promised 100 million doses.
Each contract includes options for additional doses, but the time to activate these clauses could delay delivery by several months.
Invoke the Defense Production Act
There are more than 330 million Americans, and the government says it can meet its goal of providing everyone with a vaccine by April.
Both manufacturers have factories in the United States and Europe.
There are laws that would theoretically allow the government to preempt the output that comes out of it.
"If necessary, we will invoke the Defense Production Act", indicated the American president, before adding: "We do not think that it will be necessary.
"
Two other vaccines very advanced in clinical trials could indeed be authorized at the beginning of the year and guarantee the American supply: that in two doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford (of which Washington has ordered 500 million doses), and that in a single dose of the American Johnson and Johnson, of which the United States also expects 100 million doses.
FDA experts validate Pfizer vaccine
The American Medicines Agency (FDA) seemed ready to authorize the vaccine from the American-German duo Pfizer / BioNTech in the next few days.
In a 53-page report released on Tuesday ahead of a crucial meeting Thursday of the independent expert panel advising the agency, FDA scientists ruled that nothing in the data was blocking clearance.
The FDA could then give the green light very quickly after Thursday's meeting and distribution would begin within 24 hours.
The vaccine "looks as good if not better than expected," said Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto.
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No other regulatory agency has published such a document, not even the UK regulator which has already licensed the vaccine.
But the FDA, which sees itself as the benchmark agency in the world, takes care of the transparency of its procedure to reassure the general public about the safety and harmlessness of the vaccine, developed in less than a year.