Giving Compass' Take:
- The U.S. recently announced its commitment to sharing 80 million of its COVID-19 vaccine supply with other countries.
- How does vaccine sharing help advance COVID-19 equitable distribution? What are the major hurdles that countries are experiencing right now regarding vaccine accessibility?
- Read about India's COVID-19 crisis and how donors can respond.
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US President Joe Biden announced Monday that the US will send an additional 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries, according to CNN. Along with sharing the 60 million doses the White House announced in April, the US has now committed to sharing 80 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine supply.
In April, the Biden administration committed to sharing up to 60 million of its AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which have not yet been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While the US has pledged a total of $4 billion to fund COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the ACT-Accelerator, over the next two years, Biden has previously said the US would not share surplus doses from the United States’ approved vaccine supply until the country’s population was vaccinated.
Now, with Monday’s announcement, Biden has committed to sharing surplus supplies of the authorized Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, in addition to the AstraZeneca vaccine doses.
“These are vaccinations and vaccines that are authorized to be put in arms of Americans and, by the end of June, when we'll have taken delivery of enough of such vaccines to protect everyone in the United States, the United States will share at least 20 million of those doses, that extra supply, with other countries,” Biden said, according to ABC. “This means over the next six weeks, the United States of America will send 80 million doses overseas.”
As the world grapples with the fact that over 3.7 million people have died as a result of the coronavirus, vaccination efforts are progressing based on which countries are able to stock up on vaccine doses rather than who needs the most help.
India, which is heading into the fourth week of its second wave of COVID-19 infections, has struggled to progress its vaccination efforts despite being a global vaccine manufacturer, according to Reuters. Only 0.3% of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered around the world have been given in low-income countries.
Read the full article about sharing vaccine doses by Jaxx Artz at Global Citizen.