Argentina, among the destinations of donated vaccines …

The White House announced Thursday that US government to distribute vaccines it is not using for its coronavirus vaccination campaign and that it will provide six million doses for the Covax mechanism to be distributed in at least 12 Latin American countries, including Argentina.

In a statement, President Biden’s administration announced that ship 80 million vaccines in the United States to other countries. 75 percent of the total will be delivered to the COVAX mechanism, while the remaining 25 percent will be delivered directly to other countries.

As the United States moved forward with its vaccination campaign and demand dwindled, it began to have leftover vaccines which, if not used, will expire at the end of the month.

“As we continue to fight COVID-19 at home and work to end the pandemic around the world, President Biden has vowed that the United States will be a vaccine arsenal for the world“, said the statement to this effect.

According to information provided by the White House, around six million vaccines will be shipped to Latin American countries: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti and other countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

“As in the United States, we will act as quickly as possible, complying with the legal requirements and regulations of the United States and countries, to facilitate the safe transport of vaccines ”, indicates the press release which adds that The specific amounts of doses that each country will receive will be determined and shared by Biden management according to the logistics and regulatory agreements of each region or country.

Others more than 7 million doses will go to Asian countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands.

The more than 5 million remaining doses will go to Africa and, according to the United States, the countries “will be selected in coordination with the African Union”.

In parallel, Washington has designated a group of partner countries and considered “regional priorities” to allocate 6 million additional doses to them collectively: its immediate neighbors Mexico and Canada, its allies South Korea, Ukraine, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Georgia and Kosovo; and low-income countries and territories such as the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, Haiti and Yemen.

Too will add the UN workers who are on the front lines of the fight against this pandemic.

The allocation of this first dose bracket, the Biden administration noted, “reflects the willingness of the United States to respond to all regions and to lay the groundwork for increased supply and access around the world.” . This gift, he said, “It will not be used to obtain favors from other countries.”

In addition to this distribution, the White House announced, the country commits to “encourage other countries to do the same (donate doses), work with US manufacturers to increase vaccine production for the rest of the world, and help more countries expand their own vaccine production capacity, including supporting chains global supply“.

This commitment, he said, “is an essential part of our comprehensive global strategy to lead the world in the fight to defeat COVID-19, including emergency public health assistance, by helping to stop the spread and build global public health capacity and preparedness to overcome not only this pandemic but the next. ”

Changing the position of the United States

After Biden came to power, White House health policy took a turn, seeking to revisit the heavy legacy of his predecessor, Donald Trump. To do this, he has issued several internal measures, with the aim of containing the virus, but also other external measures, such as the one announced on Thursday, which point to a dual objective.

On the one hand, the health sector, since it is increasingly clear that to end the pandemic it is not enough for a few rich countries to vaccinate their populations, but that vaccination must be global, in all territories. In contrast, Biden seeks to regain the initiative in competition with China, his main adversary in the international political system.

Noting this change of course in the north of the continent, the national government initiated a series of meetings with the objective that the United States finally free the rest and take Argentina into account for the distribution: President Alberto Fernández had lunch with special envoy Juan González; Foreign Minister Felipe Solá had met him with Antony Blinken a few weeks earlier; Argentine Ambassador Jorge Argüello offered his cooperation by letter to Gayle Smith, a State Department official: Argentine planes to carry vaccines. There was also a new meeting between Solá and Juan González, this time in Quito, on the occasion of the swearing-in of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.