In segment on vaccine distribution, Fox's Special Report ignores NY Times reporting that Trump administration declined to purchase additional doses

Written by Nikki McCann Ramirez

Published

Ahead of a planned vaccine “summit” at the White House, Fox News’ flagship news show Special Report looked into vaccine distribution. Left unmentioned was the New York Times’ report from earlier about the Trump administration turning down an offer to purchase additional doses of its vaccine.

Introduced as the first of a five-part series, Special Report touted the planned rollout of vaccines created by both Pfizer and Moderna:

From the December 7, 2020, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier 

DAVID SPUNT (REPORTER): Moderna says its vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94.1% with two doses required. The company will produce 20 million doses this year and up to 1 billion next year. Officials with Pffizer and Biontech rate their vaccine efficacy at 95%, also with two doses required. The company plans to manufacture 50 million this year and up to 1.3 billion next year. Both are expected to be free to the general public. The cost, funded through taxes. The CDC voted last week to inoculate health care workers and those living in nursing homes first. For the rest of the country, help is on the way, but a few more months down the road.

From a report in The New York Times:

Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter. Now Pfizer may not be able to provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries, they said. As the administration scrambles to try to purchase more doses of the vaccine, President Trump plans on Tuesday to sign an executive order “to ensure that United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations,” according to a draft statement and a White House official, though it was not immediately clear what force the president’s executive order would carry.

…

Asked if the Trump administration had missed a crucial chance over the summer to snap up more doses for Americans, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said, “We are confident that we will have 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine as agreed to in our contract, and beyond that, we have five other vaccine candidates.

Special Report anchor Bret Baier promised that part two of the series tomorrow would look at why some people may refuse to get the vaccine.”