Thread by @alexandraphelan

With the vaccine Executive Order now up, President Trump has ordered that "Americans" have priority to "US Govt COVDI19 Vaccines".

I want to push back on some arguments dismissing the risk of this as there are very concerning impacts.

whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

United States Government COVID-19 Vaccines are defined in the EO as "COVID-19 vaccines developed in the United States or procured by the United States Government"

This does not limit the scope of the EO to those purchased under APAs, but includes vaccines developed here.

That said, implementation of EO will likely start w vaccines purchased by US Govt under APAs. This alone is concerning:

US govt has bought signif. number of global mRNA vaccines:
– Moderna: 100m doses/266m in APAs + 400m option
– Pfizer: 100m doses/590m in APAs + 500m option

US has additional COVID19 vaccine APAs including:
– AstraZeneca/Oxford: 300m doses
– Novavax: 100m doses
– J&J: 100m

Sec 4 of the EO means that international access to these will be only after American demand is met. That plan will be released in next 30 days (Sec 5).

Critically: this EO does not preclude additional executive action by HHS or DoD or other executive agencies under Sec 3(b) to secure access to "COVID-19 vaccines developed in the US" and leaves that door open.

Finally, I am concerned by the use of the term "Americans" rather than "people in America".

Will those of us who are not American citizens get access?

I fear that people who dismiss the impact of so many of these America First EOs forget about the non-citizens who live here.