The White House is increasing pressure on Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn to issue an emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine by end of day Friday, according to administration officials, amid reports that he has been asked to resign if he fails to meet the target.
A day earlier, the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, won the backing of the FDA’s panel of outside advisers. Their approval means the next step is for the FDA to issue an emergency use authorization before vaccinations can begin.
Last week, the Washington Examiner reported that White House officials were in constant contact with Hahn trying to shave days off a timetable that initially would have meant approval announced on Monday.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had told Hahn to be ready to resign if it was not issued by the end of the day.
The demand comes amid concerns that President Trump has been repeatedly interfering in the regulatory process.
However, a senior official said Hahn had already offered assurances that he would meet the target.
“Hahn has been telling people for days that he would have approval and make the announcement by Friday evening,” said the official, who added that the first vaccinations were likely to be given on Monday.
Britain became the first Western nation to start vaccinations after issuing approval last week.
The move infuriated members of the Trump administration, which poured billions of dollars into Operation Warp Speed to accelerate development, and it raised fresh questions about when an emergency use authorization would be issued.
Trump increased pressure on the FDA in a morning tweet.
“Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr Hahn,” he said. “Stop playing games and start saving lives.”
For his part, Hahn said the conversation with Meadows had been mischaracterized.
“This is an untrue representation of the phone call with the chief of staff,” he said. “The FDA was encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA request. FDA is committed to issuing this authorization quickly, as we noted in our statement this morning.”
Earlier, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the vaccine will be available at the start of next week.
“We will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out and so we could see people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week,” Azar told ABC News.
The virus has killed more than 290,000 people in the United States.
