Some 182 million Americans have yet to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine – and despite promises from the White House to vaccinate them first, the Biden government is already making plans to send doses to neighbors in Canada and Mexico.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday that the United States plans to send 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million doses to Canada.
USA TO SHIP MILLIONS OF ASTRAZENECA DOSES TO CANADA, MEXICO
The Biden government said that once US citizens are vaccinated, the next step is to ensure that Canada and Mexico are able to control the pandemic so that borders can be reopened. This could mean more vaccines for Canada more quickly and a shorter wait for second doses.
The loan agreement will not affect President Biden’s goal of having all adult Americans eligible for a vaccine by May 1 and will not reduce the supply of the vaccine available in the United States, a senior government official told Reuters.
Although Canada’s economy is strongly interconnected with that of the USA, Washington has not allowed hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines made in America to be exported until now, and Canada has had to turn to Europe and Asia.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was not authorized for use in the United States, but it was by the World Health Organization. Tens of millions of doses were stored in the United States if they received emergency use authorization, generating an international outcry that the life-saving doses were being retained when they could be used elsewhere.
But AstraZeneca, in a statement about its plans for the US on Monday, said it plans to send its US order to the FDA in the “first half of April”.
“If approved, we can deliver 30 million doses immediately after the USA, and additional doses totaling up to 50 million in the coming weeks,” they said. “Thereafter, we plan to supply doses of 15-20M per month.”
According to the White House, the United States has a stock of 7 million releasable doses of AstraZeneca. This includes the amount the government would be lending to Mexico and Canada.
People wait in line at the check-in area to enter the United Center mass COVID-19 vaccination site on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Chicago.
(AP Photo / Shafkat Anowar)
Meanwhile, difficulties in the vaccine supply chain have forced Canada to extend the time between the first and the second injection by up to four months, so that everyone can be protected more quickly with the primary dose. The hope is to get all adults to have at least one dose by the end of June.
BIDEN FOCUSED ON COVID19 VACCINES FOR ‘ALL AMERICANS’ BEFORE HELPING OTHER NATIONS, PSAKI SAYS
Canadian regulators have approved the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but acquiring them has proved difficult.
Canada occupies about 20th place in the number of doses administered, with about 8% of the adult population receiving at least one injection. This compares to around 38% in the UK and 22% in the USA
The vaccine-sharing plan is not fully finalized, said Psaki, adding that the “loan” could include other doses, but did not provide further details, although noting that vaccination of Americans remains the government’s “first priority”.
“Our first priority remains to vaccinate the population of the United States,” said Psaki in the daily briefing, although he added that “ensuring that our neighbors can contain the virus is a critical step, it is a critical mission to end the pandemic.”
Earlier this month, Mexican President Manuel López Obrador reportedly asked President Biden for help with vaccines, but when asked by reporters whether the president would support this proposal, Psaki gave an emphatic “no”.
“No,” she said. “The president has made it clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to all Americans. That is our focus.”
She added: “But our focus, his focus, the government’s focus is on ensuring that all Americans are vaccinated and, when we achieve that goal, we will be happy to discuss further steps beyond that.”
So far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 81.4 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 44.1 million Americans have been fully vaccinated.
But the president set a goal to vaccinate at least 100 million Americans in his first 100 days – a goal that government officials say is realistic and that they will have exceeded, as the US vaccinates more Americans a day than officials initially believed they could.
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Meanwhile, as for other foreign aid, the Biden government announced ahead of the G-7 virtual meeting last month that it has committed $ 2 billion to the global COVAX vaccine initiative using funds already allocated by Congress, plus an additional $ 2 billion in the next two years.
COVAX is an alliance supported by the United Nations, which aims to deliver vaccines to the most vulnerable nations in the world.
In addition, as part of the G-7 virtual meeting last month, the president discussed a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including coordination in vaccine production, distribution and supplies.
Former President Trump in December signed an executive order that ensured that all Americans had access to the coronavirus vaccine before the U.S. government began to help nations around the world.
Trump administration officials at the time said the order was intended to again emphasize to the American people that “the priority has been an America First approach.”
Fox News’s Kaitlin Sprague, Madeline Farber, Remy Numa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.