Biden to donate 500 million more Pfizer Wax to poor countries at UN summit

Mr Biden is due to announce at a virtual COVID-19 summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, bringing a total US commitment of 1.1 billion doses to be shared overseas. The decision comes as Mr Biden is seeking to expand the US’s role in helping to accelerate global vaccination efforts in low- and lower-middle-income countries that have struggled for access to shots.

Officials said the new batch of Pfizer vaccines will be manufactured in the US and will begin shipping in January. The donation doubles the US pledge of 500 million Pfizer doses to developing countries by the end of June 2022.

The donated vaccines are being sent through Covax, an international program supported by the World Health Organization and tasked with supplying vaccines to the world’s poorest countries.

Pfizer said the doses are to be distributed to developing countries by the end of September 2022.

Although the US has offered the largest donation of any country so far, some international aid groups have called on the Biden administration and other wealthy countries to do more to help vaccinate the global population. Only 2% of people in developing countries have received their first dose of the vaccine, according to the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project, with some health experts warning that more people will die from Covid-19 in 2022 than in 2021. can.

The US had previously shipped more than 110 million doses overseas, most of which were manufactured by Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, with recipient countries ranging from wealthy allies such as Canada to developing countries such as Haiti.

Officials said Mr Biden would use Wednesday’s summit to ask other world leaders to help expand global access to the vaccine and take steps to make testing, therapeutics and personal protective equipment more available around the world. He will further urge leaders to help low- and lower-middle-income countries vaccinate at least 70% of the population by September next year.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization said in June that 11 billion doses would be needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the global population against COVID-19.

“These are global goals,” said a Biden administration official. “The United States cannot and should not achieve them alone. Everyone must be held accountable.”

The summit will be attended by other heads of state as well as representatives from the private sector and global health advocates.

Mr Biden first promised to share 500 million Pfizer doses overseas at the Group of Seven summit in the UK in June. The US began exporting those doses last month, though officials in several poor countries say they struggle with insufficient infrastructure and government resources to support a major vaccine rollout. The company said Rwanda received Pfizer’s doses on August 18 and has since shipped more than 30 million doses to 22 countries.

Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-shot regimen requires storage at minus 70 °C for up to one month before use. It also needs to be diluted with a saline solution before injection, requiring more equipment and training for healthcare workers than other vaccines. Some aid groups have said the US should play a bigger role in providing logistical and planning assistance, as well as funding to help pay vaccinators and buy necessary equipment.

The US and some other wealthy countries have also been criticized for plans to offer booster shots at home, despite calls by the WHO to halt all boosters by the end of the year and instead direct additional doses and resources toward poorer countries. Has been. .

The Biden administration indicated last month that it was preparing a booster campaign for the majority of Americans starting this month. But a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel last week recommended that the booster developed by Pfizer should be limited to older adults and those at high risk, but that timeline has been cast into doubt.