Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla responded to a 6-year-old boy from Ireland who asked the company to prioritize Santa Claus and his elves in their COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan.
The Irish examiner reported that Glanmire’s Callum Thornhill wrote to the company urging them to “please send some [vaccine] at the North Pole for Santa and his elves. Please “.
His mother, Paula Lineham, told the newspaper that a letter from one of the company’s local offices in response made her son’s Christmas.
“We have been in contact with Santa Claus to offer us our help and he assured us that he, Mrs. Claus, the reindeer and all the elves are kept well and safe,” read a letter sent by a site leader to Pfizer Ringaskiddy.
In the package was a small Christmas present: an art kit.
The CEO of Pfizer also responded to Callum and another child who wrote to the company in a post on LinkedIn.
“I want you to know that we are doing everything we can to help give hope to people around the world. And we will also make sure to take care of Santa Claus and his elves,” Bourla wrote.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine was the first authorized for emergency use in the U.S. and the UK earlier this month. Since then, the vaccine has begun to be distributed and administered to Americans.
A Moderna vaccine for emergency use was also removed in the following days.
The launch of the vaccine comes when the United States and the United Kingdom report some of the highest levels of new infections and deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, forcing many localities to tighten restrictions on public life in the middle of the holiday season.