尽管总统一再努力为科学家开发新型冠状病毒疫苗的创纪录速度邀功唐纳德·特朗普一反常态的沉默了联合王国成为第一个批准新冠肺炎疫苗的国家。
特朗普几个月来一直把重点放在疫苗生产上，认为这是抗击病毒的关键，也是他连任的关键，他向美国联邦监管机构施压，要求他们加快行动，并声称(没有证据)他们和制药公司放缓了这一进程，以便在政治上伤害他。
一名高级政府官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯(Mark Meadows)周三召见了食品和药物管理局局长斯蒂芬·哈恩(Stephen Hahn)，要求在几天内在白宫西翼举行第二次会议。
林沙夫/盖蒂影像公司
美国总统唐纳德·特朗普于2010年11月26日感恩节在白宫外交厅发表讲话
几个月来，特朗普公开向美国食品和药物管理局施压，要求其更快地授权对新冠肺炎的治疗——即使这些治疗尚未被证明有效。在竞选期间，他公开表示希望疫苗在选举日之前能够广泛提供，但这并没有发生。
大选后不久，在11月13日罕见的公开露面中，他再次吹嘘了疫苗工作，他称之为“扭曲速度行动”，称之为“世界上无与伦比和无与伦比的，其他国家的领导人也打电话给我祝贺我们所做的一切”，他最近哀叹当选总统乔·拜登将获得赞誉。
特朗普的盟友英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊(Boris Johnson)最近与总统唱反调，承认拜登在总统选举中获胜，他指出，英国是第一个“预先订购辉瑞疫苗供应的国家，确保了4000万剂疫苗”。
约翰逊周三说:“我们一直在等待并希望有一天，科学的探照灯会发现我们看不见的敌人，并给我们力量来阻止敌人让我们生病。”“现在科学家们已经做到了。”
英国周三宣布，已授予辉瑞公司和德国生物技术公司开发和生产的疫苗紧急使用临时授权，这突显了英国和美国不同的监管制度
特朗普政府疫苗项目的首席科学顾问蒙瑟夫·斯劳伊(Moncef Slaoui)在接受美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)首席主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯(George Stephanopoulos)采访时表示:“我希望美国食品和药物管理局能得出类似的结论。”《早安美国》访谈星期三。
“英国机构是一个非常，非常高级别的机构，在评估的质量和深度方面与美国食品和药物管理局相当，”他补充说。“但当然，正如你所知，就判断而言，该操作与FDA完全分离，而且，你知道，事情会按照它们的路线发展。但我希望在12月10日或11日之前，辉瑞疫苗获得批准。”
曼德尔·颜/法新社，通过盖蒂图像，文件
蒙瑟夫·斯劳伊博士在圣灵降临节的玫瑰园发布了关于“曲速行动”的最新消息
新冠肺炎疫苗的开发以创纪录的速度发展，美国食品和药物管理局已经大大缩短了其典型的监管程序。
特朗普政府公共卫生高级官员坚持政治动机在这一过程中没有发挥任何作用，白宫新闻秘书凯莉·麦克纳尼周三形容梅多斯与哈恩的会面并不罕见。
她在新闻发布会上告诉记者，“参谋长会见他是理所当然的，因为我们正试图用疫苗在创纪录的时间内拯救美国人的生命。”
白宫拒绝对哈恩本周的任何一次白宫会议发表评论。
麦克纳尼还表示，她“不知道”白宫收到任何关于英国将授权辉瑞/生物技术公司疫苗的警告。
“我不知道我们得到了什么提示，”她周三在回答美国广播公司新闻频道的一个问题时说。
Trump silent as UK is first to authorize vaccine
Despite his repeated efforts to take credit for the record pace at which scientists have developed a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, PresidentDonald Trumpwas uncharacteristically silent Wednesday after theUnited Kingdombecame the first nation to authorize a COVID-19 vaccine.
Trump has for months zeroed in on vaccine production as a key to fighting the virus -- and to his reelection -- pressuring federal regulators in the United States to move faster and alleging -- without evidence -- that they and pharmaceutical companies have slow-rolled the process in order to hurt him politically.
The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Wednesday summoned the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, for a second meeting at the West Wing in as many days, a senior administration official told ABC News.
Trump has for months publicly pressured the FDA to act more quickly on authorizing treatments for COVID-19 -- even when they had not been proven to be effective. During the campaign, he openly expressed his desire for a vaccine to become widely available by Election Day, which did not happen.
Shortly after the election, in a now rare public appearance on Nov. 13, he again bragged about the vaccine effort, which he dubbed "Operation Warp Speed," calling it "unequaled and unrivaled anywhere in the world, and leaders of other countries have called me to congratulate us on what we’ve been able to do," and he has recently lamented that President-elect Joe Biden would receive credit.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Trump ally who recently bucked the president by recognizing Biden's victory in the presidential election, noted his country was the first “to pre-order supplies of this Pfizer vaccine, securing 40 million doses.”
“All the time we’ve been waiting and hoping for the day when the searchlights of science would pick out our invisible enemy and give us the power to stop that enemy from making us ill,” Johnson said Wednesday. “And now the scientists have done it.”
The U.K.'s announcement Wednesday that it had granted a temporary authorization for emergency use of a vaccine developed and produced by Pfizer and the German company BioNTech shone a light on the different regulatory regimes there and in the United State
"I would expect the FDA to reach a similar conclusion," the chief scientific adviser to the Trump administration's vaccine program, Moncef Slaoui, told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos inan interview on "Good Morning America"Wednesday.
"The U.K. agency is a very, very high-level type of agency, comparable to the FDA in terms of quality and depth of its assessment," he added. "But of course, as you know, the operation is totally separated from the FDA as far as judgments are concerned, and, you know, things will follow their course. But I hope by the 10th or 11th of December, the Pfizer vaccine is approved."
The development of COVID-19 vaccines has moved at record speed, and the FDA has shortened its typical regulatory process significantly.
Top Trump administration public health officialshave insistedthat political motivations are not playing any role along the way, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday portrayed Meadows meeting with Hahn as not unusual.
"It is par for the course for the chief of staff to meet with him as we’re trying to save American lives with the vaccine in record time," she told reporters at a news conference.
The White House otherwise declined to comment on either of Hahn's White House meetings this week.
McEnany also said that she was "not aware" of the White House receiving any heads up that the U.K. was going to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
“I’m not aware of any heads-up that we were given," she said Wednesday in response to a question from ABC News' Ines de la Cuetara.
