WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s administration is stockpiling tens of millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine whose authorization in the United States remains uncertain, frustrating U.S. allies who say those doses are ‘should use now to save lives abroad.
The showdown is part of a growing global debate over who should have access to the hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine that pharmaceutical companies are producing in the United States. In addition to generating ill-will, Biden’s insistence on an oversupply for the United States is creating new opportunities for geopolitical rivals with Russia and China.
A two-dose vaccine from AstraZeneca has received emergency authorization of the European Union and the World Health Organization, but not of the United States. America’s partners are forcing Biden to release its supply, noting that the administration has aligned enough doses of three vaccines already authorized to cover all American adults by the end of May. and the entire American population in late July.
AstraZeneca says vaccines produced in the United States are “owned” by the U.S. government and that sending them abroad would require White House approval.
“We understand that other governments may have contacted the U.S. government about the donation of AstraZeneca doses and we have asked the U.S. government to carefully consider these requests,” Gonzalo Viña, a spokesman for AstraZeneca.
While the European Union of 27 countries is eager to relaunch a more fruitful transatlantic relationship after the shattered Trump presidency, the issue of vaccines is still a thorny issue, and some in Europe see it as a continuation of the former President Donald Trump. “America First” approach.
Ambassadors from EU member states have debated the challenge this week. The German government said on Friday that it was in contact with US officials on the supply of vaccines, but stressed that the European Commission is the leader in acquiring shots in member states.
Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have led representatives to discuss supply chains in vaccine production.
“Hopefully, we will be in a position on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that sufficient amounts of vaccine doses are distributed according to the schedule to complete vaccination campaigns,” said the commission’s chief spokesman. the EU, Eric Mamer.
More than 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are stored in the US for use here.
“We want it to be supplied to us and be too prepared,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday, so Americans can still be vaccinated quickly in the event of unforeseen problems with the production schedule. existing.
“We have not provided doses from the U.S. government to anyone,” he said.
Asked about the stored vaccine, White House coordinator COVID-19 Jeff Zients said: “We have a small inventory of AstraZeneca, so if approved, we can send that inventory to the American people. as soon as possible. “He said the US was following the same procedure it used for already authorized vaccines.
Drug manufacturers who received federal aid to develop or expand vaccine manufacturing had to sell their first doses in the U.S. In the case of AstraZeneca, whose vaccine was initially expected to be the first to receive federal emergency authorization, the government ordered 300 million doses – enough for 150 million Americans – before problems with the clinical trial of the vaccine withheld authorization.
The company said this month that it expects to have approximately 30 million doses available to the U.S. government by the end of March and an additional 20 million by the end of April.
As foreign regulators have advanced with the firing, the United States has not withdrawn its contractual demand on initial doses produced in America.
This policy has also been criticized by residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico, who have been forced to look for vaccines manufactured on a different continent, rather than crossing the border. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has bought enough doses from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to inoculate 150 million more people than the U.S. population by the end of the year.
The U.S. has also ordered 110 million doses of vaccine from Novavax, which is expected to apply for emergency clearance as early as next month.
The US trial of AstraZeneca, with 30,000 people, did not complete registration until January. The company has given no idea when the initial results might be ready, beyond what an executive told Congress last month he hoped would be “soon.”
The European Union, in the midst of its own deployment of vaccines, seems increasingly resigned to the Biden administration, which maintains dose control in the United States.
The EU also disagrees with AstraZeneca, because the company delivers much less doses to the blog than it had promised. Of the initial order of 80 million in the first quarter of this year, the company will struggle to deliver half.
Despite the shortage at home and often accused of vaccine protectionism, the 27-nation bloc has allowed more than 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to be exported in recent weeks, including 953,723 to the United States.
Meanwhile, Russia and China have used their nationally produced vaccines as strategic leverage.
China has promised about half a million doses to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country count by The Associated Press. Four of China’s many vaccine manufacturers say they will be able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year.
Russia has sent millions of doses of its Sputnik V vaccine. in countries around the world, although it vaccinates its own population. Analysts say the goal of this vaccine diplomacy is to strengthen Russia’s image as a scientific, technological and charitable power, especially when other countries are short of COVID-19 vaccines because richer nations collect the vaccines. versions made by the West.
Israel, which has vaccinated more than half of its population with Pfizer vaccines produced in Europe, has also tried to use vaccine diplomacy to reward allies.
Biden proposed that the U.S. contribute financially to the COVAX alliance backed by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, which will help share the vaccine with more than 90 low- and middle-income countries, but the United States still they have not committed to sharing any dose.
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Casert and Petrequin reported from Brussels. Danika Kirka in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Lauran Neergaard in Washington collaborated.
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