Operation Warp Speed’s Gen. Gustave Perna has apologized for the miscommunication regarding the distribution of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. According to Time, Perna spoke with reporters and took full responsibility for the situation. “I failed. I’m adjusting,” he said. “I am fixing and we will move forward from there.”
Perna’s statement seems to be connected to a report wherein a number of states indicated that the U.S. government told them they will be receiving less of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than originally stated. “I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” Perna said. “I know that’s not done much these days. But I am responsible. … This is a Herculean effort and we are not perfect.” The general then went on to explain that he made an error in marking the number of doses he understood would be prepared to go.
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PERNA’S MEA CULPA: “It was absolutely not poor planning,” @surgeon_general says after Gen. Perna, Warp Speed chief operating officer said there was a “miscommunication” with states on available doses of @Pfizer‘s #COVID19 vaccine.
“Numbers are going to go up and down,” he says pic.twitter.com/G3MHslh1P6
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 20, 2020
“I am the one who approved forecast sheets. I’m the one who approved allocations,” he said, then going on to reference the second vaccine — from Moderna — which was recently approved. “There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine.”
Perna went on to state that the U.S. government is currently projecting that around 20 million does of coronavirus vaccine will be rolling out to states by the first week of January. The shipment will be a mix of the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. He also added that, to date, close to 3 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses have been shipped out to states.
As #COVID19 vaccines are distributed, #OWS Chief Operating Officer General Perna urges all Americans to continue working together to fight the virus. Wearing a mask, washing hands, and social distancing are still critical. https://t.co/frZoR92CRF pic.twitter.com/4QkdyedsCU
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) December 20, 2020
Operation Warp Speed came under a lot of scrutiny lately, after a letter from Pfizer indicated that the Trump administration had not given the company directives on where to send thousands of doses of the coronavirus vaccine, per Business Insider. In the statement, the company clarified some rumors about its vaccine, saying that it had not been “having any production issues,” and that there were millions of doses in storage that would be sent out once the White House told them where to send them. Anonymous sources connected to the Trump administration stated that the stored doses were being saved for those who had already received the vaccine, so that they could get their second dose.
