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These vaccines will begin shipping in January, and from January to September next year, the United States will send 800 million vaccines worldwide, the official said. These vaccines bring the US total to more than 1.1 billion vaccines donated to other countries.
“We also know that to beat the pandemic here we have to beat it everywhere. And I made – and I keep – the promise that America will become the arsenal of vaccines as we were the arsenal of democracy during the world war II, ”Biden said at the summit.
The vaccines will be distributed through Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, the global immunization program known as COVAX. The president noted that the United States has already shipped more than 160 million doses of Covid-19 to 100 countries, which is more than all other countries have donated combined.
“To put it another way: for every injection we gave today in America, we have now committed to doing three in the rest of the world,” Biden said at the summit.
The president called on other countries to fulfill and increase their vaccine donation pledges to help end the pandemic, and announced a partnership between the United States and the European Union to expand global vaccinations against Covid -19.
The surge comes as the Biden administration prepares to offer boosters to many Americans vaccinated this fall. The executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergency program, Mike Ryan, criticized the decision, arguing that vaccines should be a priority for those who have not yet received a vaccine against Covid-19.
White House officials pushed back the criticism and said they could provide booster shots while continuing efforts to help immunize the rest of the world. Officials like Jeff Zients, White House Director of Covid-19 Response, and US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy have stressed the importance of doing both at the same time in order to end the global pandemic.
Biden said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would summon foreign ministers later this year to check on the progress of immunization around the world. The president also proposed a second high-level virtual summit in the first quarter of 2022 “to help assess our progress and keep our efforts fully alive.”
The summit will be made up of heads of state, leaders of international organizations, the private sector, philanthropic organizations, non-governmental organizations and other partners from around the world, according to an administration official, who said. said there were over 100 countries and 100 participating organizations. The summit will contain four separate sessions and is expected to last over four hours with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both chairing one session.
Biden will call on world leaders from all sectors to focus on specific areas in order to help end the pandemic, including immunizing the world equitably and effectively and saving lives now by working to resolve the pandemic. global oxygen crisis and improving testing and treatment. available.
The White House sent summit attendees a list of “deliberately ambitious” goals and targets, which will be released later.
“We need to align around common goals and targets to hold ourselves and the world accountable for collective action to end the pandemic, and obviously to prepare for the next one,” the official said.
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