The United States will increase the number of vaccines it gives to the rest of the world to 80 million in the next six weeks

The United States will provide an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to third countries, bringing the announced total to 80 million doses. over the next six weeks, the White House announced on Monday.

President Joe biden confirmed the donation, indicating that it is “13% of all those produced in the country”. And he added: “We know that the United States will not be completely safe until the pandemic ends in the world.”

In addition, the US president sent a message to Russia and China: “We will not use them for favors.”

“The United States will send 20 million doses authorized for use to the United States by the end of June to help countries battling the pandemic,” White House press secretary said Jen Psaki, who underlined that the figure of 80 million multiplies by five “the greatest number of doses given by a country of the world”.

This implies that this batch of inoculants will contain those developed by the three laboratories having received an emergency authorization and supplied in the North American country: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The 60 million initially announced come from AstraZeneca.

The announcement comes as pressure has mounted on the Biden administration to use its large vaccine surplus to help other countries, as the vaccination campaign in the United States has made significant progress.

Specifically, last week, an average of 1.9 million people were vaccinated each day, a sharp drop from the peak of 3.38 million recorded in April, according to data from the Centers for Control and Prevention. diseases (CDC).

So far, 47% of the population (157 million people) have received at least one dose, of which 37% are fully vaccinated (122 million), according to the CDC.

Psaki declined to comment on which countries would be the priority recipients of the shipments.But the US president has indicated that Washington will do everything possible to help India cope with the worsening pandemic.

However, the Biden government has announced that the distribution criteria will be decided in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Covax mechanism, which is coordinating the global effort to ensure this is done in a fair manner.

On Monday, UNICEF said G7 and European Union countries can afford to donate more than 150 million vaccines to countries in need without compromising their own goals.

For next June, UNICEF said the Covax program – co-led by the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, together with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness – he will find 190 million doses less than he had planned to distribute.

The goal of the program is to ensure that 20% of the population of all countries are immunized by the end of this year. “is at risk”, recognized Monday Bruce aylward, WHO responsible for Covax.

Delays can be made up if countries in a position to do so can give doses, he told reporters: “We are determining our future now.”

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “We need high-income countries that have contracted a large part of the immediate global vaccine supply to share them now,” he said. he told reporters.

He insisted that the “Covax plan is working”, noting that the program has so far distributed some 65 million doses to 124 countries: “But it depends on which countries and which manufacturers meet their commitments.”

With information from AFP and EFE

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