US President Joe Biden says he has enforced a war law to force pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna to deliver more doses of corona vaccine to the United States, faster than initially planned.
Last week, the US government reported that the companies would have delivered 300 million doses of both vaccines by the end of July, enough to vaccinate all US adults.
“We arranged for them to speed things up by enforcing the National Defense Act to help with production,” Biden said during a question time in Milwaukee city on Tuesday.
He seemed to refer to the so-called Defense Production Act, which allows the US government to oblige companies to produce for the state. The previous government enforced that law to ensure that there would be more respirators in the US in a short period.
The White House reported earlier today that 13.5 million doses of vaccine would be distributed to various states this week. Last week there were 11 million. The number of vaccines distributed to pharmacies is expected to double this week to 2 million doses.
On the same day, however, government officials warned that the extreme winter weather in some states could slow distribution.