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COVID surges and vaccination rates. Are the two inextricably linked?
Vaccination rates continue to increase as many states have opened availability to all adults. But also increasing? COVID-19 surges, apparently resulting from a combination of eager travelers, relaxed distancing and mask mandates, and new variants that are more transmissible and perhaps more dangerous. What does that mean for vaccines and the ability to stop this pandemic?
| Updated December 14, 2020
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reportedly put pressure on Food and Drug Administration head Stephen Hahn to expedite the approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine or risk losing his job.
Meadows told Hahn on Friday to resign if the vaccine was not authorized by the end of the day, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the conversation.
Axios corroborated the Post’s account, saying Meadows suggested to Hahn in a Friday phone call that the FDA commissioner’s job may be at stake over the vaccine.
Hahn disputed this characterization of his call with Meadows, telling Axios in a statement that it was “an untrue representation of the phone call with the Chief of Staff.”