There’s a lot to be angry about with this story. The vaccines are being developed by private companies, who have pre-sold hundreds of millions of doses to world governments. That fact alone is something of an indictment of how our market-driven world works today but it is, for all its advantages and flaws, how the world works.

The Trump administration pre-purchased 100 million doses this summer — that’s enough for 50 million Americans since the vaccine requires two doses to be fully effective. The administration passed on the opportunity to purchase more doses and is now scrambling to get more, which may prove impossible since Pfizer has already pre-sold doses to other countries. The pan in pandemic means global, after all.

It’s the exact kind of colossal fuckup Trump has made a hallmark of his presidency — a complete self-own borne of his own rank stupidity, complete incuriosity, and total incompetence. He’s signing an executive order with basically no legal standing that will attempt to force Pfizer to sell the doses they’ve already pre-sold to other countries to the American government, in an attempt to cover up for his abject failure. It’s the kind of proto-fascism his base loves and will inject into their hate-filled veins instead of recognizing how much it’s literally killing them.

Moncef Slaoui, the top science advisor for Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed”, said he has no idea what the president is talking about regarding the “America first” directive.