Pfizerâs efforts to capitalize on the discovery were for weeks camouflaged in a bureaucratic language dispute. Before Christmas, Pfizer approached F.D.A. officials requesting a formal change to its fact sheet so that it said each vial contained six doses of vaccine instead of five. But regulators instead suggested the phrase âup to six doses,â depending on what kinds of needles and syringes were used to extract the vaccine.
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Vials of Pfizerâs vaccine retrieved from a freezer at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia during the first week of vaccinations in December.Credit.Hannah Yoon for The New York Times