[ad_1]
Millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines currently stored in warehouses in the United States are now destined for vaccination sites in Mexico and Canada, according to the White House. This donation marks one of the United States’ first steps into the nascent – and deeply controversial – world of late-stage pandemic vaccine diplomacy.
The neighborhood gesture would be a loan – the United States expects it to reciprocate and hand over some vaccine doses in the future. The United States can certainly afford to be generous with these doses. The AstraZeneca vaccine he is donating has not been authorized in the United States. The country has reserved doses In case it eventually receives the green light from the FDA, but the vaccine is still being tested in the United States. The results of this trial are due soon, but functionally the United States has a whole bunch of doses that it cannot do anything with.
But other countries can. Many places have given AstraZeneca the green light, including Canada and Mexico. And the United States has lined up enough licensed vaccines to inoculate the entire American population. This has left many pushing the Biden administration to let the doses go to countries in need. Now it looks like they’re finally going to do just that.
(Short aside: To complicate matters, there is quite a mess with the deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe – strange blood clotting has occurred in a few patients, forcing several countries to stop vaccinations. Vaccinations resumed this week, with several regulators – and AstraZeneca – insisting the vaccine is safe.)
The several million doses handed over to Mexico and Canada are a start. But on the world stage, the United States is a little behind the times when it comes to vaccine donation. China, India, and Russia, among others, have all been pushing this particular version of soft power for quite some time now. India, which has a massive pharmaceutical industry, is in a privileged position to donate vaccines to other countries. The UAE is trying to become a major vaccination hub in the Middle East, both by purchasing and distributing vaccines. China and Russia have both developed their own vaccines and are using them to strengthen their alliances around the world. So now, several countries are offering their own vaccine supplies (and their own national programs) to countries that cannot afford to negotiate their own agreements with a limited number of manufacturers.
Then there is COVAX. COVAX is a vaccine distribution effort set up by international organizations, including the World Health Organization. Its goal is to ensure that the poorest countries also have access to COVID-19 vaccines. So far, it has shipped around 30 million vaccines around the world. This is not nothing, but a small fraction of the more than 420 million doses of vaccine administered worldwide. And that’s a far cry from COVAX’s goal of delivering more than a billion doses to the poorest countries by the end of this year.
This left COVAX very annoyed to all bilateral trade between countries and between countries and pharmaceutical companies.
“We have made great progress,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in February. “But this progress is fragile. We need to speed up the supply and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and we cannot do it if some countries continue to approach manufacturers who produce vaccines that COVAX relies on. These actions are undermining COVAX and depriving health workers and vulnerable people around the world of life-saving vaccines. “
Biden has pledged $ 4 billion to COVAX, but international pressure is mounting for rich countries like the United States to put their doses where their wallets are.
“From an American perspective, we are losing a bit of the message war,” said Krishna Udayakumar, director of the Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University. Axios last month. “If we look six months from now, the United States may well have given more doses than any other country in the world. But right now the scenario is how we buy more and accumulate more supply. “
The United States appears to be trying to change this scenario – but it continues to go its own diplomatic route to achieve it. In March, President Biden met with leaders from Australia, Japan and India on a plan to boost vaccine production and flood Asian and Pacific countries with vaccines this year. At the same time, there is internal pressure for the US government to quickly roll out the vaccines it has to its own population, which, due to the Trump administration’s confusion in the pandemic, has suffered the greatest number. of official deaths from all countries of the world. .
As the deployment continues, this will all continue to happen. Countries will try to vaccinate people on their borders, and they will simultaneously try to make the most of all donations to the rest of the world. For now, it is a messy political problem that is linked to other international negotiations. But when this is all over and the vaccine vials are empty, the nations of the world will be left with the way they have treated other human beings – whether they’ve clung to an extra-dose safety blanket, or they have returned part of their bonus. to a neighbor in need.
Here’s what happened this week.
Search
Scientists needed help with COVID-19. They asked the sport.
“It was a year in which professional athletes were the biggest, tallest, strongest and fastest lab rats in the world. (Ben Cohen, Louise Radnofsky and Andrew Beaton / The Wall Street Journal)
Coronavirus re-infections rare, Danish researchers report
The results of a Danish study revealed that re-infections were rare, but outside experts wanted more information about an age group in the study that appeared to be more vulnerable – people over 65. (Apoorva Mandivall / The New York Times)
How much should we really worry about the coronavirus variants?
An accessible overview of frequently asked questions about coronavirus variants. (Anna Nowogrodzki / Slate)
Major variant of coronavirus found in pets for the first time
Pets, especially cats and dogs, can also contract COVID-19. Now it looks like they can catch some of the COVID-19 variants as well. (David Grimm / Science)
Development
“It’s a very special image. Why vaccine safety experts put the brakes on AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine
Unusual cases of strange blood clots alarmed European experts last week. There weren’t many cases and there was no clear link to the vaccine the patients had been given, but they were alarmed – here’s why. (Gretchen Vogel, Kai Kupferschmidt / Science)
What is happening with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe?
After the discovery of these blood clots, some countries in Europe temporarily stopped vaccinating people. Then the regulators came out and said the vaccine was safe. Since then, many countries have resumed vaccinations, but the situation remains complex. (Umair Irfan / Vox)
You are not fully vaccinated on the day of your last dose
Just a reminder – people are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after their last dose. Please plan accordingly. (Katherine Wu / Atlantic)
Viewpoints
Fate has led me to a mysterious place for the past nine months: isolation. At a point in my life when I’m supposed to branch out, the COVID pandemic seems to have shrunk those branches into nubs. I had to do research in colleges without setting foot there. I introduced myself to strangers through trials, videos and test results.
—Gracie Yong Ying Silides, a high school student, wrote about her experience in the past year in a college essay, excerpted in The New York Times.
More than numbers
To the over 420 million people who have been vaccinated – thank you.
To the more than 122,101,187 people around the world who have tested positive, may your journey to recovery be smooth.
To the families and friends of the 2,696,513 people who have died around the world – including 540,950 in the United States – your loved ones are not forgotten.
Stay safe, everyone.
[ad_2]
Source link