COVID-19 vaccine

The US administration has purchased a further 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from a US company and its German partner BioNTech. This was confirmed by White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki at a regular briefing for journalists on Friday.

"Yes, we have made that purchase," the US presidential spokeswoman said. She said US authorities have "always prepared for any scenario" in this area.

She stressed that so far US experts have not worked out a solution on either supplementary vaccinations or vaccinating children under the age of 12. Jennifer Psaki said: "We don't know if we will need booster vaccinations. Decisions on this will be made by researchers from the Food and Drug Administration, who are currently working on this issue. There is currently no such recommendation." She did not deny that the US government is "certainly looking forward" to the US Department of Health and Human Services experts issuing an authorisation for the vaccination of minors. "We want to make sure we have as much flexibility as possible," Psaki explained, commenting on the purchase of another 200 million doses of the drug from Pfizer.

In addition, the White House spokeswoman assured that the US federal government is not going to hold those Americans who refuse to get the covid vaccine responsible for the increase in new coronavirus infections in the country. "I don't believe our role is to assign blame. But we can provide accurate information to those who have not yet been vaccinated about the risks they are putting not only themselves, but those around them," said Psaki, who represents the ruling Democratic Party. She was responding to Alabama's Republican governor, Kay Ivey, who had previously said it was "time to blame the unvaccinated" for the increase in covid cases in the US.