The purchase of an additional 200 million doses of Pfizer and Modern by the Biden administration means that the US could completely vaccinate 300 million people with just these two vaccines – and 355 million month people if four additional vaccines get FDA approval.
Why it’s important: There are 250 million adults living in the United States, many of whom will not choose to get vaccinated. It now also controls much of the world’s vaccine supply. The White House says the United States will eventually give overdoses to other countries, but has not released any plans to do so.
The state of play: The administration has focused almost entirely on ensuring that all Americans who want a vaccine can get one before this summer.
- With additional doses of Pfizer and Modern and up to 40 million doses of Johnson & Johnson ready to deploy if approved, the White House is increasingly confident that they will achieve that goal.
- Meanwhile, the administration “will develop a framework to supply overdose … even through COVAX facilities as appropriate,” says State Department spokesman Ned Price.
- They will need to balance the distribution of doses around the world with the retention of possible booster shots or the hesitant vaccine.
Between lines: Administration sources stress that despite mass orders, only two vaccines have been approved and supply remains scarce. Until that changes, they say, it’s too early to focus on sharing doses globally.
The state of play: Vaccination plans in many countries are based entirely on the global COVAX initiative, which aims to distribute two billion doses this year, mainly to low- and middle-income countries. Some do not expect to vaccinate most of their population until 2023.
- COVAX is developing a donation platform that is expected to increase during the second half of 2021 as rich countries begin to meet their domestic needs, according to a spokesman for Gavi, the international alliance against vaccines.
- Biden has said the U.S. will participate in COVAX, which Donald Trump missed, but has not yet specifically committed.
- Countries such as Canada and France have said they will provide doses to COVAX, but only Norway has promised to do so in parallel with its national vaccination program.
Meanwhile, India and China they are making bilateral donations to neighboring countries, while China and Russia sell their state-funded works around the world.
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned Friday that China and Russia could use vaccines to force other countries to do so.
- He also stressed that the United States committed $ 4 billion to Gavi in December for global vaccinations and that Biden’s recovery plan includes an additional $ 11 billion for the global relief effort.
- Canada and the UK have bought even more doses in relation to their populations than the US, but the US controls the largest number of doses.
What they say: “From the perspective of the United States, we are losing the messaging war a bit,” says Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke University’s Center for Global Health Innovation.
- “If we look at it in six months, the US may have given more doses than any other country in the world. But right now the plot is how we buy more and accumulate more supply.”
Dr. Zeke Emanuel, vice president for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, acknowledges that mass purchases have sparked international criticism, but says things will be very different in the spring. By then, the United States will have increased national distribution and will be able to think more about supplying doses globally.
- Emanuel, who served on Biden’s COVID-19 advisory committee during the transition, says that as one of the world’s most important coronavirus points and its largest economy, the U.S. should be a priority country for vaccination in no case.
- He also says the billions invested by the United States could help expand global vaccine production in the long run.
- For now, however, “every time a bilateral agreement is reached it means removing a capacity that could go towards supporting equitable access,” Gavi’s spokesman said.
The summary: As noted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the emerging variants of COVID-19 stress the need to effectively distribute vaccines worldwide to truly control the pandemic.
- Fauci says “the U.S.” will be part of that process. ”But it’s still unclear what the U.S. role will be.
It is necessary to emphasize: Most of the 1.2 billion doses of six vaccines currently in the books were purchased as part of the Trump administration’s Warp Speed operation. Sanofi’s is not on our chart because it is not expected until the end of 2021.