Government officials characterized the decision as an attempt to prevent the spread and mutation of the virus, which disregards the borders and relative income levels of different countries.
However, they said that no decision has been made on whether to directly donate excess doses of vaccines already purchased by the United States to other countries, which could accelerate efforts to vaccinate the world’s population.
Other countries, including Russia and China, have started making their own direct donations to countries for their state-funded vaccines, which the White House said earlier it is watching with concern.
“This pandemic is not going to end unless we end it globally,” said a senior government official. “Pandemics – they travel. And we also know that the more diseases there are, the more likely we are to see variants.”
COVAX expects to supply vaccines to at least 20% of the population in 92 of the world’s poorest countries by the end of this year. It has made deals with vaccine manufacturers to purchase more than 2 billion doses using money donated by wealthier countries, although not all of these vaccines have been authorized for use yet.
It fell short of its funding targets, but the $ 2 billion offered by the United States will represent significant ground. Trump refused to participate in the global effort, insisting that his focus should be on providing Americans with doses.
Biden government officials said their focus was also on vaccinating Americans and sought to separate domestic and international efforts.
“This promise to COVAX has no impact on the vaccination program in the United States,” said an official.
The United States government has guaranteed 600 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that will be available by the end of July. It also purchased doses of the product not yet authorized by Johnson & Johnson, as well as other vaccines still in development.
This probably means that the United States will have large surplus doses that could be donated to the poorest nations. The Biden administration is looking to develop a framework for donating excess vaccines “as soon as there is sufficient supply in the United States”.
The timetable for what will depend on when there is enough supply in the USA.
“Our current focus is to vaccinate Americans, get gun injections here and support COVAX’s effort,” said a second senior administration official, indicating that the administration will focus on meeting domestic vaccination needs before sharing vaccines internationally.
Advocates have asked the Biden government and other wealthy nations to make plans to donate excess doses, in addition to increasing their financial contributions.
“It is no longer a question of whether the United States will get enough injections for everyone who wants to, but what we plan to do with the excess doses we have purchased,” said Tom Hart, executive director of North America in The ONE campaign. “As G7 leaders prepare to meet for the first time since the start of this pandemic, the Biden administration must show strong global leadership and establish a framework and timetable for a global plan to distribute overdose of vaccine to countries. they need, while vaccinating the US ‘domestic population. “
Other wealthy nations have also started to book large vaccine orders, leaving the poorest nations to depend on the COVAX initiative for their populations – or on countries like China, India and Russia, which have started to donate their state-produced vaccines directly to other nations.
Last week, the White House said it feared these efforts.
“We certainly saw attempts by other countries – China and Russia – to use vaccines as a means of making diplomatic progress,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “You know, the president is engaged with a number of leaders around the world, conveying how he wants the United States to have a central seat on the world stage, and we are working to do that through a series of actions. But we we are – we watch these actions with concern. “