by Anthony Fauci, the US governments top infectious-disease specialist, slammed the UKs drug regulator, saying that it rushed to clear the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. The UK watchdog, called the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said Wednesday that it had approved the Pfizer vaccine. That means the shot will likely be used in Britain before the US and the European Union. Theyre great, theyre good scientists, Dr Fauci said in an interview with CBS News, according to a transcript. But they just took the data from the Pfizer company and instead of scrutinizing it really, really carefully they said, OK, lets approve it. Thats it.
The comments, which he later toned down in a separate appearance, come as Britains business minister Alok Sharma indicated the UK would receive an initial batch of 800,000 vaccines but hoped for millions.
We are starting initially with 800,000 and then lets see where we end up by the end of the year in terms of the numbers that we acquire. That will depend on the manufacturing, Mr Sharma said on Sky News.
I hope we will have some millions by the end of this year but of course what we also always said is that the vast majority of this vaccination programme will take place in the new year, he said.
