The stepped-up U.S. commitment marks the cornerstone of the
global vaccination summit Biden convened virtually on the sidelines of the U.N.
General Assembly, where he encouraged well-off nations to do more to get the
coronavirus under control.
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World leaders, aid groups and global health organizations
are growing increasingly vocal about the slow pace of global vaccinations and
the inequity of access to shots between residents of wealthier and poorer
nations.
The U.S. purchase of another 500 million shots brings the
total U.S. vaccination commitment to more than 1.1 billion doses through 2022.
About 160 million shots supplied by the U.S. have already been distributed to
more than 100 countries, representing more donations than the rest of the world
combined. The remaining American doses will be distributed over the coming
year.
“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,”
Biden said. He added that with the new commitments, “For every one shot we've
administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the
rest of the world."
The latest purchase reflects only a fraction of what will be
necessary to meet a goal of vaccinating 70% of the global population — and 70%
of the citizens of each nation — by next September’s U.N. meeting. It's a
target pushed by global aid groups that Biden will throw his weight behind.
Biden is pressing other countries to do more in their
vaccine sharing plans.
“We need other high income countries to deliver on their own
ambitious vaccine donations and pledges,” Biden said. He called on wealthy
countries to commit to donating, rather than selling the shots to poorer
nations, and to provide them “with no political strings attached.”
Biden said the U.S. would also increase its funding to
global aid groups that are administering shots
The American response has come under criticism for being too
modest, particularly as the administration advocates for providing booster
shots to tens of millions of Americans before vulnerable people in poorer
nations have received even a first dose.
“We have observed failures of multilateralism to respond in
an equitable, coordinated way to the most acute moments. The existing gaps
between nations with regard to the vaccination process are unheard of,”
Colombian President Iván Duque said Tuesday at the United Nations.
More than 5.9 billion COVID-19 doses have been administered
globally over the past year, representing about 43% of the global population.
But there are vast disparities in distribution, with many lower-income nations
struggling to vaccinate even the most vulnerable share of their populations,
and some yet to exceed 2% to 3% vaccination rates.
Chilean President Sebastian Piñera said the “triumph” of
speedy vaccine development was offset by political “failure” that produced
inequitable distribution. “In science, cooperation prevailed; in politics,
individualism. In science, shared information reigned; in politics, reserve. In
science, teamwork predominated; in politics, isolated effort,” Piñera said.
The World Health Organization says only 15% of promised
donations of vaccines — from rich countries that have access to large
quantities of them — have been delivered. The U.N. health agency has said it
wants countries to fulfill their dose-sharing pledges “immediately” and make
shots available for programs that benefit poor countries and Africa in
particular.
COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship vaccines to all
countries has struggled with production issues, supply shortages and a
near-cornering of the market for vaccines by wealthy nations.
The WHO has urged companies that produce vaccines to
prioritize COVAX and make public their supply schedules. It also has appealed
to wealthy countries to avoid broad rollouts of booster shots so doses can be
made available to health care workers and vulnerable people in the developing
world. Such calls have largely gone ignored.
COVAX has missed nearly all of its vaccine-sharing targets.
Its managers also have lowered their ambitions to ship vaccines by the end of
this year, from an original target of some 2 billion doses worldwide to hopes
for 1.4 billion now. Even that mark could be missed.
As of Tuesday, COVAX had shipped more than 296 million doses
to 141 countries.
The 70% global target is ambitious, not least because of the
U.S. experience.
Biden had set a goal of vaccinating 70% of the U.S. adult
population by July 4, but persistent vaccine hesitance contributed to the
nation not meeting that target until a month later. Nearly 64% of the entire
U.S. population has received at least one dose and less than 55% is fully
vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
U.S. officials hope to increase those figures in the coming
months, both through encouraging the use of vaccination mandates and by
vaccinating children once regulators clear the shots for the under-12
population.
Aid groups have warned that the persistent inequities risk
extending the global pandemic, and that could lead to new and more dangerous
variants. The delta variant raging across the U.S. has proved to be more
transmissible than the original strain, though the existing vaccines have been
effective at preventing nearly all serious illness and death.
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