At the Kalamazoo, Michigan manufacturing plant of Pfizer, CEO Albert Bourla delivered the introduction for President Biden’s speech. Importantly, he reported that Pfizer has delivered 40 million doses to the U.S. government, and that 80 million more doses were on track to be delivered by March 31. He said that their ramping-up involved more than doubling their rate of production. They would have to average around 13-14 million doses/week over the next six weeks. He also confirmed the important development that they would shortly apply to the FDA for Pfizer to be used at regular freezer temperatures. (Instead of deep freeze storage at between −80 to −60 °C, they can now be stored at regular freezer temperatures of −25 to −15°C.
Biden appeared impressed by his tour of the plant, where he observed that “machinists were working side by side with chemists and biologists!” He was accurate in recounting the importance of the recruitment of “vaccinators": recruiting retired doctors and nurses; deploying 800 medical personnel from HHS, and others from FEMA and the National Guard. He has put $20 billion into his proposed bill for help for states to stand up a logistical force. And then he went on to take credit for actions that were already part of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS): use of the Defense Production Act to speed up the supply chain; the opening up mass vaccination sites such as stadiums; and the need for minorities to overcome past abuses and to accept vaccinations.
