UK's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Prompts Questions About US Timeline

Published December 8, 2020 at 11:06 AM CST

A coronavirus vaccination is given at Cardiff and Vale Therapy Centre on December 8, 2020, in Cardiff, Wales. More than 50 hospitals across U.K. were designated as COVID-19 vaccine hubs, the first stage of what will be a lengthy vaccination campaign. (Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, British citizens became the first people outside clinical trials to receive Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, which has led to new questions about how quickly Americans will be able to get inoculated against COVID-19.

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday declaring the U.S. will vaccinate its own citizens before helping other countries around the world. That order reportedly does not contain anything increasing the supply of vaccines available to Americans, but it follows The New York Times’ report that the Trump administration declined last month to buy more than the initial 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine it had already guaranteed.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Tom Frieden, who was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under former President Obama. He’s now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.