An ardent supporter of protecting some of the world’s poorest countries from Covid-19 has been selected to lead the Biden administration’s vaccine diplomacy in an effort to corner the wealthiest nations to distribute immunizations more evenly around the globe.
Gayle Smith, former administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and chief executive of Campaign ONE to eradicate poverty and preventable diseases, will take over, a new position at the State Department.
With some 62 million people in the United States already fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken defended on Monday that he ensures that more people are protected abroad.
“We have a duty to other countries to control the virus here in the United States,” said Blinken at the State Department. “But soon, the United States will need to step up our work and live up to the situation around the world. Because again, just by stopping Covid globally, Americans will be saved in the long run. “
Blinken said other nations have been asking the United States “with growing desperation” to share its supply of vaccines. “We heard you and I promise that we are going as soon as possible,” he said.
Ms. Smith will largely focus on trying to coordinate the international response, even when the virus mutates and threatens to extend the pandemic. So far, the United States has contributed or promised $ 4 billion to Covax, the global vaccination campaign, largely aimed at low- and middle-income countries, and Congress last month approved $ 11 billion in overseas efforts. to combat the pandemic in addition to billions of dollars sent to foreign nations and non-governmental organizations in the first year of the outbreak.
More than 665 million doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to the Oxford University Our World in Data project.
Even so, China, India and Russia have already overtaken the United States in providing vaccines worldwide, as an instrument of diplomacy. Last month, the ONE campaign asked Biden to share 5% of his doses abroad, when 20% of Americans had been vaccinated, and to increase doses globally as more people in the United States received theirs. According to the group, the United States government bought 453 million surplus doses of the vaccine.
Ms. Smith, who will receive her second vaccine on Tuesday, helped lead the Obama administration’s response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak that swept the borders of West Africa and the United States, while the World Health Organization was stunted by staff cuts and other resource shortages. Officials said the UN agency has been promoting stronger collaboration by scientists and health experts to better track diseases.
The Trump administration withdrew from WHO last year after refusing to blame China for not stopping Covid-19 where it originated, but the United States has again committed to working with the agency under President Biden.
“If the virus is moving faster than we are, it is winning,” Smith said after Blinken announced his appointment on Monday. “But with unity of purpose, science, surveillance and leadership, we can overcome any virus.”
Mr. Blinken said that there will be enough vaccines for all adults in the United States by the end of May, following the death of more than 550,000 Americans claimed by the virus since February 2020. More than 2.8 million people worldwide were killed by the pandemic.
Other world leaders have begun to demand that wealthy nations share vaccines with the poorest countries; on Sunday, Pope Francis called vaccines “an essential tool” to stop the pandemic.