Biden to boost world vaccine sharing commitment to 80M doses
This Dec. 2, 2020 photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows vials of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.[Johnson & Johnson via AP]
President Joe Biden will announce Monday that the U.S. will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks, the White House said.
The doses would come from existing U.S. production of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said more details would be released in the coming days.
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It comes on top of the Biden’s administration’s prior commitment to share about 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet authorized for use in the U.S., by the end of June. The AstraZeneca doses will be available to ship once they clear a safety review by the Food and Drug Administration.
Biden is also tapping COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients to lead the administration’s efforts to share doses with the world. The Biden administration has yet to announce how they will be shared or which countries will receive them.
To date, the U.S. has shared about 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine with Canada and Mexico.