Designated Secretary of State Anthony Blink
Antony Blinken For Joe Biden, an experienced foreign policy team Biden selects Wendy Sherman for State Department No. 2 position Night Defense: Agency Watchdogs Investigating Response to Capitol Riots | 25,000 guardians have now approved the security of the inauguration Troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq reached 2,500 MORE said the president-elect Joe Biden
Joe Biden: Woman Accused of Attempting to Sell Pelosi Laptop to Arrested Russians Trump Gets Lowest Job Approval Rating in Recent Days as President Trump Goes to Lift Coronavirus Travel Restrictions in Europe, Brazil MONTH intends to join Covax, the effort led by the World Health Organization to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine in low- and middle-income countries.
Previously, Biden had not officially pledged to participate in the initiative.
“We firmly believe we can ensure that all Americans receive the vaccine, but we can also make sure that other people around the world who want it have access to it,” Blinken told senators during a confirmation hearing Tuesday.
The Trump administration in September said it would not join the alliance, sparking criticism from public health experts who said it represented a short-sighted view of a global effort.
Virtually every country in the world participates in the initiative, except the United States and Russia.
The Trump administration at the time said it did not want to “be forced by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”
World health agencies launched the Covax project to ensure that poor and developing countries could access a coronavirus vaccine at the same rate as rich and developed countries.
WHO officials have said Covax needs additional funding to meet its goal of vaccinating at least 20% of the population of all countries by the end of 2021.
According to the WHO, Covax has already ordered 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with options of another 1 billion.
But the organization warns that rich countries are accumulating doses of vaccines, which could delay the delivery of Covax-funded vaccines and put poor countries at risk. Health experts warn that the pandemic will not end until it is controlled globally.
Laura Kelly contributed