Biden announces international COVID-19 vaccine sharing plan

[peppertree]

The U.S. will donate 75% of its unused COVID-19 vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program, President Joe Biden announced Thursday.

The White House unveiled the allocation for sharing the first 25 million doses with the world. The U.S. has said it plans to share 80 million vaccine doses globally by the end of June. The administration says 25% will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners.

Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, the White House says about 19 million will go to COVAX, with approximately 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia, and 5 million for Africa.

The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.

At: https://apnews.com/article/biden-announces-international-covid-vaccine-sharing-plan-cc4630f1d45b379c573c55a2042026e0

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his administration's coronavirus response from the White House yesterday.

“As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable,” Biden said.

“And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.”

[Duncanpup]

1. Fantastic

[peppertree]

2. Humane and smart - just like Joe Biden

And not a moment too soon - because not only is most the world still mostly unvaccinated (the US, the EU, UK, and China account for 62% of doses given thus far - but have 29% of the population), what vaccines the 3rd world countries have gotten have mostly come from China and Russia.

Wherever you go in the 3rd world, it's mostly either Sinopharm (Chinese state), Coronavac (Chinese firm Sinovac), or Sputnik V (Russia's Gamaleya Labs).

AstraZeneca (mainly from India, until recently) and, lately, Pfizer have made inroads - but it's still mostly China and Russia.

Biden's decision is the best possible response to that - not least because everyone knows Pfizer (actually, BioNTech) mRNA vaccines are the best in the market.

[SheltieLover]

3. Wondering why he didn't allocate more for Canada & Mexico?

From what little I know, Mexico, in desperation, bought Russian "vaccines." Useless.

Canada is very much in need.

[peppertree]

4. Good question.

My understanding is that Canada bought enough doses to cover its population six times over - although, as you pointed out, its vaccination rate thus far is 65 doses per 100 (compared to 89 in the U.S.).

Mexico had been counting on an AstraZeneca deal (250 million doses total), whereby the active ingredient (virus DNA, etc.) would be made in Argentina and bottled in Mexico - but with some U.S. made ingredients.

And therein was the problem: there was an export restriction here in the U.S. until recently on most of said ingredients.

That left them dependent on other sources - though the AstraZeneca doses are finally now becoming available.

But Latin America still relies on China (Sinopharm and Sinovac, mostly) and Russia (Gamaleya) for most of their vaccines.

Even the two "star vaccinators" (Chile and Uruguay) are heavily reliant on Sinovac - despite having also signed with Pfizer (which can't deliver much due to U.S. export limits - for now).

So for all those reasons and more, Biden did the right - and smart - thing.

The announced numbers, though, are for now a pittance (6 million doses - when Latin America/Caribbean has 660 million people). That could change though.

[SheltieLover]

5. Ty for sharing!

I knew Joe did the right thing 'cuz, well, he's Joe.

[peppertree]

6. You're very welcome

Here's hoping all this is behind us - and soon.

[SheltieLover]

7. From your keyboard to karma's ear!

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞