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Is Pfizer part of Operation Warp Speed? Ivanka Trump slammed for praising Donald Trump for vaccine's success

Pfizer did not accept government money to develop, test or expand manufacturing capacity under Trump's Operation Warp Speed. In fact, the vaccine's development was entirely self-funded

President Donald Trump on Friday, November 13, took full credit for Pfizer's announcement that its Covid-19 vaccine was robustly successful, misrepresenting the extent of government support behind the company’s efforts.

“As a result of Operation Warp Speed, Pfizer announced on Monday that its China virus vaccine was more than 90% effective. ...Pfizer said it wasn’t part of Warp Speed, but that turned out to be an unfortunate misrepresentation,” Trump said during his first public remarks since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. 

According to reports, however, Pfizer notably did not accept government money to develop, test or expand manufacturing capacity under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative to quickly find a vaccine and treatment for the disease sweeping the country. In fact, Pfizer partnered with the vaccine’s original developer, Germany’s BioNTech, in March and the following month announced the first human study in Germany.

The White House announced Operation Warp Speed in May, reported The Baltimore Sun. “Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine development and manufacturing costs have been entirely self-funded,” Pfizer spokeswoman Jerica Pitts said this week. “We decided to self-fund our efforts so we could move as fast as possible.”

However, Pfizer did sign an agreement with the US government in July worth $1.95 billion — if the vaccine pans out and is cleared by the FDA — to supply 100 million doses. That guarantees Pfizer a US market, an important incentive.
 
When Ivanka posted a tweet falsely praising Trump for the vaccine’s success, she was quickly slammed by Twitter users. She wrote, “Extraordinary! Operation Warp Speed has accomplished in months what would have taken many years! Promises Made, Promises Kept! Thank you @realDonaldTrump!”

One user wrote in response, “The vaccine was developed in Germany with German government funding and every developed country is going to have it. So I don't know what you're talking about.” Another user said, “It was a German-funded effort. There are also 10 More vacs in Phase 3. Waiting on Oxford Vaccine results. Thank you to all the scientists and pharmacists.. see it’s good when you believe in Science.”

A user wrote, “Germany funded Pfizer, not the US, The US will purchase the vaccine.” Another supported saying, “Good try but no Pfizer was not part of operation warp speed because they knew it would be corrupt.” Another mocked Ivanka’s tweet writing, “Daddy promised the virus would go from 15 cases to zero before Easter. Promises made, promises failed.”

Concerned about the growing number of cases on a daily basis a user asked what the plan was until the vaccine is launched, “Ok. We just had 190,000 cases today. Tomorrow should be about 230k. It will grow exponentially until the vaccine. What's the plan until then?”

Another user wrote, “Really which warp speed vaccine is ready? I know Pfizer is almost ready but they took no money from the US and are not part of warp speed. They do have a purchase agreement that the government will buy the vaccine. But they did it themselves well some german money.” A comment read, “N O P E ! Science did that. In fact, two Turkish immigrants in Germany did that.”