FDA Commissioner Hahn denies reports he was threatened with firing
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Saturday pushed back on reports that he was threatened with firing.
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that in a Friday phone call, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested to Hahn that his job could be on the line if his agency didn’t authorize emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of the day.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized by the FDA late Friday.
“Representations in the press that I was threatened to be fired if we didn’t get it done by a certain date is inaccurate,” Hahn told reporters on a Saturday morning call.
Hahn said Saturday that the vaccine was authorized late Friday because science and data determined it was ready, not because of “any other external pressure” and that he would “absolutely” take the vaccine.
-ABC News' Emily Shapiro, Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Anne Flaherty