Coronavirus: Joe Biden pledges to donate 500 million more vaccine doses to other countries
- The move will double US donations to over 1.1 billion doses, still far short of the 5 billion to 6 billion doses needed by poorer countries
- The additional Pfizer shots will be made in the US and shipped to low and lower middle-income countries starting in January
“To beat the pandemic here we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said, kicking off the summit, which includes leaders from Canada, Indonesia, South Africa and Britain, as well as World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“This is an all hands on deck crisis,” he said of the pandemic that has raged since early 2020, killing at least 4,913,000 people.
The additional vaccines will bring US donations to the rest of the world to more than 1.1 billion doses, far short of the 5 billion to 6 billion doses global health experts say are needed by poorer countries.
The vaccines from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE will be made in the United States and shipped to low and lower middle-income countries starting in January, a senior administration official said ahead of the announcement.
“This is a huge commitment by the US In fact for every one shot we have administered in this country to date, we are now donating three shots to other countries,” the official told reporters.
A source familiar with the issue said the government would pay some US$7 per dose.
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In June, the Biden administration agreed to buy and donate 500 million doses of the vaccine. Under the terms of that contract, the United States will pay Pfizer and BioNTech around US$3.5 billion or US$7 a dose for the shots.
The US has also come under criticism for planning booster shots to fully vaccinated Americans while millions of people around the world still do not have access to the life-saving vaccines.
Vaccination rates in some countries, including Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are less than 1 per cent, a Reuters tracker shows.
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Delays in vaccinations mean the global population will be “exposed to new variants attacking us with greater ferocity”, Colombian President Ivan Duque said Wednesday. “Global immunity requires solidarity, so hoarding cannot exist in the face of others’ needs,” Duque said.
Biden’s virtual summit will focus on vaccinating the world, saving lives by tackling an oxygen shortage and making medicines more available, and preparing for another pandemic in the future, another administration official said.
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Targets include getting 70 per cent of countries’ populations vaccinated by this time next year.
Deliveries of the initial 500 million doses began in August, and the total one billion doses are expected to be delivered by the end of September 2022, according to a statement from Pfizer and BioNTech.
The doses will be made in Pfizer’s US facilities, and delivered to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries and the 55 member states of the African Union.
