WASHINGTON (AP) – With the closure of the United States of President Joe Biden’s goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccines weeks ahead of schedule, the White House announced Thursday that the nation is now in a position to to help supply millions of people to neighboring Canada and Mexico. shots.
The Biden administration revealed the outlines of a plan to “lend” a limited number of vaccines to Canada and Mexico, as the president announced that the United States is on the verge of meeting its injection target. 100 days “well ahead of schedule”.
“I am proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days after our administration, we will have met our goal“Biden promised to unveil a new vaccination target next week, as the United States is about to have enough of the three vaccines currently authorized to cover the entire adult population in just ten weeks.”
Prior to Biden’s statements, the White House said it was finalizing plans to send a combined 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada in its first shot export. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said details of the “loan” were still being worked out, but 2.5 million doses would go to Mexico and 1.5 million would be shipped to Canada.
“Our first priority is to vaccinate the American population,” Psaki said. But he added that “ensuring that our neighbors can contain the virus is a critical step in the mission, it is critical to ending the pandemic.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been authorized for use in the United States, but it has been by the World Health Organization. Tens of millions of doses have been stored in the United States pending authorization for emergency use, and this has sparked an international outcry that the life-saving vaccine is being withheld when it could be used in other places. The White House said only 7 million doses of AstraZeneca are ready for shipment.
The initial volume of US-made doses is owned by the federal government under agreements with drug manufacturers, and the Biden administration has faced calls from allies around the world to release AstraZeneca’s gunfire. for immediate use. Biden has also made direct requests from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to buy vaccines produced in the United States.
Global public health advocates say rich countries like the United States must do much more to help curb the spread of the pandemic. The World Health Organization on Thursday released a report that so far less than 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Africa. It is the equivalent of what the United States administers in a matter of days.
Biden proposed that the US contribute financially to the COVAX alliance backed by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, which will share the vaccine with more than 90 low- and middle-income countries, but the United States has not yet ‘have agreed to share no dose.
Since his first days in office, Biden has established clear and achievable metrics for U.S. success, whether it’s vaccines or school reopening, as part of an apparent strategy of underpromising and overprinting. Aides believe that exceeding their goals builds confidence in the government after the Trump administration’s sometimes fantastic rhetoric about the virus.
The 100 million dose target was first announced on December 8, days before the United States even had an authorized vaccine against COVID-19, let alone the three that have now received clearance. ’emergency. Still, it was generally within reach, though optimistic.
When Biden opened on January 20, the United States had already managed 20 million shots at a rate of approximately 1 million a day, complaining at the time that Biden’s goal was not ambitious enough. He quickly reviewed it at 150 million doses in its first 100 days.
The United States is now injecting an average of about 2.2 million doses each day, and the rate is likely to increase dramatically by the end of this month, along with a projected increase in vaccine supply.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency has reported 96 million doses of injections since taking Biden, but these reports are delayed by the actual date of administration. Vaccination trend lines indicated that Biden would surpass $ 100 million this Thursday, with the CDC likely to confirm the data as early as Friday.
The president has decided to speed up vaccine deliveries from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, as well as expand the number of places to get shots and people who can administer them, with a focus on increasing the country’s ability to inject doses as an increase in supply restrictions.
The risk of setting too high expectations is that an administration can be defined for not meeting them, as in May 2020, when President Donald Trump said the nation had “triumphed” over the virus.
By then, the country had seen about 80,000 dead from the virus. This week, the death toll in the United States exceeded 538,000. Trump’s lax approach and lack of credibility also contributed to poor adherence to public safety standards among the American public.