The Biden administration is set to buy 500 million more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine with the intent of distributing them to the Third World. The highly effective vaccine has been all but off-limits for poorer nations, as Pfizer has refused to significantly lower the price and demanded substantial collateral to ensure bills are paid.
According to the Associated Press, which cited a person familiar with the matter on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden is expected to announce the program during the Group of Seven (G7) summit being held in Cornwall, England, later this week.
The New York Times reported that the doses would be distributed to about 100 countries, with 200 million doses being sent this year and the rest sent in the first half of 2022.
Sullivan added that Biden wanted to “leverage what the United States is doing to help get the world’s democracies to increase their commitment to supplying vaccines to the developing world to help end this pandemic once and for all” and show “that democracies are the countries that can best deliver solutions for people everywhere.”
However, so far the US distributed a tiny amount of vaccines and only pledged to send a total of 80 million shots to poorer countries. By contrast, the People’s Republic of China has already sent 350 million vaccine shots abroad while also administering 808 million shots at home as of Wednesday, according to National Health Commission data.
The announcement comes as the US faces increasing pressure to begin distributing the trove of vaccines it has accumulated for itself. The US government has already paid for 750 million vaccines, twice the total US population, and both Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, said they would take care of vaccinating Americans before helping other parts of the globe.
Sullivan told reporters the forthcoming purchase would be made in lieu of pushing for a waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had previously stated the administration was discussing with the World Trade Organization.
More than 80 nations, led by India and South Africa and supported by progressive figures in the US, have been pressuring the WTO to waive the TRIPS agreement and allow them to produce the vaccines developed by First World pharmaceutical giants locally as generic drugs. However, those same companies have staunchly opposed the suggestion, which would undermine their anticipated massive profits from vaccine sales.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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