WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden will use his first major presidential moment on the world stage at Friday’s Group of Seven World Leaders meeting to announce that the United States will soon begin releasing $ 4 billion for an international effort to strengthen the purchase and distribution of coronavirus vaccine for poor nations, White House officials said.
Biden will also encourage G-7 partners to meet their commitments to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, according to a senior government official, who spoke with the anonymity to preview Biden’s ad.
Former President Donald Trump refused to participate in the COVAX initiative because of his ties to WHO, the Geneva-based agency that Trump accused of covering up China’s false steps in manipulating the virus in beginning of the public health crisis. Trump pulled the US out of the WHO, but Biden moved quickly after his investiture last month to reunite and confirmed that the U.S. would contribute to COVAX.
The $ 4 billion funds were approved by Congress in December and will be distributed until 2022.
The U.S. is committed to working through COVAX to ensure “equitable distribution of vaccines and funding globally,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.
It remains to be seen how the G-7 allies will take Biden’s calls for greater international cooperation in vaccine distribution, as the U.S. refused to participate in the Trump initiative and there are growing calls for the Biden administration to distribute some U.S.-made vaccine supplies overseas.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, called on the United States and European nations to allocate up to 5% of current vaccine supplies to developing countries, the type of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia they have begun to deploy.
And earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres harshly criticized the “unequal and unequal savage.” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting that 10 countries have administered 75% of all vaccines.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also raised with Biden the possibility of Canada getting the vaccine at the facilities of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, according to a senior Canadian government official, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity private conversation.
Canada has received all of its doses of Pfizer from a company facility in Puurs, Belgium, and has experienced supply disruptions.
But Biden, who announced last week that the United States will have enough vaccine supply by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million people, it continues to focus now on making sure all Americans are inoculated, administration officials say.
The president, in his first national security memorandum last month, called on his administration to develop a framework for delivering surplus vaccines once there is a sufficient supply in the U.S.
The COVAX program has already missed its own goal of starting coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries at the same time that shots were fired in rich countries. The WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion in 2021.
Guterres said Wednesday that 130 countries have not received a single dose of the vaccine and stated that “at this critical time, the equity of the vaccine is the biggest moral test to the world community.”
The Group of Seven Industrialized Nations is the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Canada, and Italy. Friday’s G-7 meeting, the first of Biden’s presidency, is practically held.
In addition to discussing vaccine distribution, Biden also plans to use the meeting to discuss the collective competitiveness of G-7 countries and the economic challenges posed by China, according to the White House.
Biden also plans to deliver a virtual address to the Munich Safety Conference on Friday before traveling to Michigan to visit Pfizer’s vaccine manufacturing plant.