Biden administration unveils plan to vaccinate world against COVID-19

Washington: The Biden administration has unveiled the first phase of its plan to share US-manufactured COVID-19 vaccines with the world by announcing it will distribute 25 million doses to needy countries.

The initial rollout will focus on developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa, with 19 million doses distributed via the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative.

US President Joe Biden, pictured with Vice-President Kamala Harris, has released details of his plan to share 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world. Credit: AP

The remaining 6 million doses will be shared directly with US allies such as Mexico, Canada and South Korea as well as Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Australia is not among the more than 40 countries that will receive allocations in this phase of the US vaccine-sharing program.

“Strong American leadership is essential to ending this pandemic now, and to strengthening global health security for tomorrow,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“The United States will be the world’s arsenal of vaccines in our shared fight against this virus.”

The White House has pledged to share 80 million vaccine doses internationally by the end of the month, and to continue distributing more doses as they are needed.

Biden stressed the US was donating the vaccines to other countries without expectations of anything in return.

“We are sharing these doses not to secure favours or extract concessions,” he said.

“We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic, with the power of our example and with our values.”

In a press briefing announcing the scheme, Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said: “This is just the right thing to do.“

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said some doses would begin being sent overseas by the end of the day.

All doses in the initial phase would be those manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The White House is still waiting on approval from federal regulators to share its stockpile of AstraZeneca doses with overseas countries.

Through COVAX, the US will distribute approximately 6 million doses to countries in Central and South America such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

Approximately 7 million doses will go to Asian-Pacific countries such as India, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea.

Approximately 5 million will be shared with countries in Africa in co-ordination with the African Union.

Biden has previously said that he hoped to announce details of a “long-lasting and significant” multinational initiative to distribute vaccines globally at the G7 summit next week.

“We need to lead an entirely new effort, an effort that involves working with the vaccine companies and partner nations to vastly increase supply,” Biden said in May.

“This will take longer than our immediate work to donate from existing supplies and we’re going to be asking other nations to help shoulder the economic costs of this effort.”

The vaccine-sharing announcement came a day after Biden designated June a “national month of action” on vaccines as he tries to reach his goal of having 70 per cent of the US adult population vaccinated by the July 4 holiday.

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