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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will announce on Wednesday his intention to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, giving the United States more than enough supply to immunize the entire American population.
Biden will announce he is leading his Health and Human Services team to procure the additional doses during a meeting with executives from J&J and Merck, according to two administration officials.
Biden said this month that the United States is on track to have enough doses of the vaccine for every adult in the country to get vaccinated by the end of May after the Food and Drug Administration given permission to use the J&J vaccine.
The United States had already made deals for enough vaccine doses for each adult, even without the addition of the J&J vaccine last month, when the United States finalized a deal with Pfizer and Moderna for an additional 200 million doses. vaccine against the coronavirus by the end of July. But having the deal in place with J&J for an additional 100 million doses could help serve as a back-up should Pfizer or Moderna run into manufacturing issues.
The White House announced this month that Johnson & Johnson will work with rival drugmaker Merck & Co. to speed up production of its single-dose vaccine.
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