The Biden administration on Thursday took a modest step toward sharing coronavirus vaccines with the world, announcing it intends to ship 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca to Canada and 2.5 million to Mexico.
Why it’s important: The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has not been approved in the United States and the White House has faced growing criticism for sitting at doses that could be used elsewhere.
- The deal comes in the form of a loan, as the U.S. sends doses to Canada and Mexico now in hopes of returning doses to the United States later this year.
The big picture: The world has four main sources of coronavirus vaccines: China (33% of all doses produced), the US (27%), the EU (19%) and India (13%), according to data shared with Axios for Airfinity, a scientific information and analytics company.
- Although China has exported about 60% of the vaccines it has produced, in part due to a low sense of urgency in China, where the virus is largely controlled, the U.S. has exported a 0 %, focusing instead on covering all US adults.
- So far, India has exported 65% of its production to Airfinity, but the CEO of the country’s largest producer said last month that it had been “aimed at prioritizing India’s huge needs”.
- The EU is holding a vigorous debate on whether to control exports more rigorously, lamenting what it considers an imbalance with the United States and the United Kingdom.