Plea to US for excess Covid-19 vaccine doses going to waste

The Morrison government has made urgent appeals to the Biden administration for access to its ­estimated 26 million vaccine doses that are sitting unused and about to expire.

Senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee Michael McCaul. Picture: AFP

The Morrison government has made urgent appeals to the Biden administration for access to its ­estimated 26 million vaccine doses that are sitting unused in warehouses and about to expire.

The Weekend Australian has spoken to three high-level sources involved with the negotiations ­between Australia and the US and it is understood Australia has “made representations” over the course of several weeks for access to America’s excess Pfizer ­vaccines.

All of Australia’s requests have so far been unsuccessful.

A senior Australian government source said the representations were continuing.

Leading Republicans are pushing the Biden administration to provide Australia the excess doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines – some of which expire this month.

Michael McCaul, the senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said Australia should be prioritised for the doses, followed by developing nations where China was exerting influence through vaccine diplomacy.

“Australia is not only an ally but a Five Eyes ally,” Mr McCaul said.

“I’ve been pressuring this ­administration through the Covax program to give more of these ­vaccines that are just sitting in warehouses in the US.

“They will expire if we don’t get them out the door.”

“I think particularly a Five Eyes ally should get the vaccines … and then we need to get it to countries like Sri Lanka, to African nations and Latin America where we know the Chinese are playing a pretty big game of vaccine diplomacy, to vaccinate people against the very virus that they created.”

Mike Gallagher, the Republican co-chairman of the Friends of Australia congressional caucus, is also backing the move.

“The United States has vaccine doses set to expire at the same time our Australian mates need extra doses,” Mr Gallagher said.

“The Biden administration should be doing everything in its power to get these doses to ­Australia.”

About one million doses have gone to waste in the US since ­December, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials chief ­medical officer Marcus Plescia told The New York Times: “Here we are with loads of ­vaccine, and there are other countries in the world where people are desperate for vaccination.”

Despite interest from some US states in sharing excess vaccines, the doses are owned by the federal government which is preventing their redistribution.

One source involved in the ­negotiations between Australia and the US, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would be politically awkward for the US to send excess vaccines to a “rich” country because it could be seen as undermining the administration’s commitment to deliver 500 million doses to developing nations, under a $US3.5bn ($4.7bn) deal with Pfizer, by the end of 2022.

The negotiations are still ­ongoing as the US currently has excess supplies, but sources were not hopeful of a positive outcome.

One source said the ­negotiations were all “up in the ether”.

A third insider said the US was reluctant to commit any doses to Australia, because it might need to divert the vaccinations to hot spots in the US amid a fresh outbreak of the Delta variant.

The Australian government currently has agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Novovax for the supply of vaccines. According to timelines distributed in June, doses of Moderna are not expected to arrive until September.

The US has significant vaccine reserves in some states that are set to expire “this summer” and “a significant tranche of Pfizer doses is expected to expire in August”, a report in specialist medical publication Stat revealed in July.

Robert Ator, a retired colonel in the Arkansas Air National Guard who is leading that state’s vaccine distribution, told Stat: “We’re drowning in this stuff.”

Mr McCaul told The Weekend Australian that the US had the capacity to deliver “hundreds of millions of doses”.

“I’m afraid (the Biden administration) may think it’s mission accomplished, we’ve covered the US but I think we have a moral ­responsibility having developed this to get it to our allies and to these developing nations that are falling prey to the CCP,” Mr McCaul said.

“Get the vaccines to our allies, get the vaccines to nations where the Chinese are coming in with their vaccine and they want ­access to the ports, military bases … I believe we’re losing in that diplomacy game right now.”

US President Joe Biden said this week his administration had donated 110 million vaccine doses to 65 countries globally.

“In the fight against Covid-19, the United States is committed to be the arsenal of vaccines,” Mr Biden said.

He added the donations would have “no favouritism and no strings attached”.

The Biden administration, which had been celebrating a ­decline in Covid-19 cases a month ago, is now battling more than 100,000 cases a day.

The US daily vaccination rate has been in steady decline since April, from more than three million a day to about 600,000 this week.

The White House did not ­respond to a request for ­comment.

Watch Michael McCaul’s full interview with Sharri Markson on Sky News, Sunday at 6pm (AEST)