WASHINGTON – An international effort to accelerate the manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide increased on Thursday on two fronts: White House officials said the Biden government will deliver on the US pledge to donate $ 4 billion to the campaign in two years, and the pharmaceutical company Novavax has pledged to sell 1.1 billion doses of its vaccine.
President Biden will make his announcement on Friday, during a virtual meeting with other leaders of the Group of 7, where he is also expected to call on other countries to step up their contributions. The $ 4 billion was approved last year by a Democratic-led House and a Republican-led Senate when President Donald J. Trump was in office.
Public health experts often say that unless everyone is vaccinated, it is as if no one is vaccinated. One of the officials, who spoke anonymously to predict the president’s announcement, said it is also in the interest of international security for the United States to assist in efforts abroad to lessen the effects of the pandemic.
Countries like India and China are already using the coronavirus vaccine as a diplomatic tool; both are distributing doses to other nations in an effort to expand their global influence. National security experts said the United States should consider doing the same.
“We can use the vaccine internationally to strengthen our relations with allies, to establish some positive cooperation with China, to deal with humanitarian issues in less developed parts of the globe,” Richard J. Danzig, who was Secretary of the Navy for President Bill Clinton , said in an interview late last year, lamenting the Trump administration’s indifference to the idea. Such an effort, he said, “could give us a very substantial national security advantage.”
The Biden White House appears to be moving in that direction. After taking office, Mr. Biden instructed federal agencies to create “a framework for donating surplus vaccines, as soon as there is sufficient supply in the United States, to countries in need”, including through the international program.
But, an official said on Thursday, the United States will not share vaccines now, while the domestic vaccination campaign is expanding.
The government has guaranteed 600 million doses of the two vaccines that have emergency clearance, enough for 300 million Americans. These doses are expected to be available by the end of the summer, and Biden said this week that vaccines will be available to all Americans by the end of July. If additional vaccines are approved, as is most likely, this will increase the stockpile in the United States.
The international vaccination effort, known as Covax, was led by the public-private health partnership known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization. Its goal is to distribute vaccines that have been considered safe and effective by WHO, with an emphasis on low- and middle-income countries.
White House officials said the money would be delivered in multiple installments: an initial $ 500 million donation immediately, followed soon by an additional $ 1.5 billion. The remaining $ 2 billion will be delivered by the end of 2022.
The president’s engagement in the global fight against the pandemic is a stark contrast to the approach of Trump, who withdrew from the World Health Organization and disdained foreign assistance, pursuing a foreign policy he called “America First”. Biden returned to the World Health Organization immediately after taking office in January.
One official said Biden would ask other nations to make significant promises to Covax.
So far, the United States has promised more than any other nation, according to the White House; The official said the goal was to leverage the second tranche of $ 2 billion by up to $ 15 billion – the amount the government believes is needed to increase the vaccine’s supply worldwide and distribute it.
The leaders of the Covax effort welcomed the Novavax announcement with enthusiasm. Dr. Seth Berkley, Gavi’s chief executive, said in a statement that the donation would help the campaign “close our goal of delivering two billion doses by 2021”. He said he would also expand the range of vaccines he could count on to “build a portfolio suitable for all environments and contexts”.