About 182 million Americans have not yet received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine – and despite promises by the White House to vaccinate it first, the Biden government is already planning to deliver doses to neighbors in Canada and Mexico send.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday that the U.S. plans to ship 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico, and 1.5 million doses to Canada.
US TO SEND MILLIONS OF ASTRAZENECA DOSES TO CANADA, MEXICO
The Biden government has said that once US citizens are vaccinated, the next step is to ensure that Canada and Mexico can manage the pandemic so that the borders can reopen. This could mean faster vaccination for Canada and a shorter wait for second doses.
The loan agreement will not affect President Biden’s goal of qualifying for a vaccine for all adult Americans by May 1 and will not reduce the supply of available vaccine in the U.S., a senior administrative official told Reuters.
Although Canada’s economy is closely linked to the US, Washington has not yet allowed the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses manufactured in America to be exported, and Canada has had to turn to Europe and Asia.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved for use in the US, but has been approved by the World Health Organization. Tens of millions of doses have been stored in the US should it get permission for emergency use, causing an international outcry that life-saving doses are withheld when they can be used elsewhere.
But AstraZeneca said in a statement on Monday about their US plans that they plan to submit their EUA application to the FDA in the first half of April.
“If approved, we could deliver 30 million doses immediately to EUA, and additional doses up to 50 million in subsequent weeks,” they said. “After that, we plan to offer 15-20M doses per month.”
According to the White House, the US has a stock of 7 million doses of AstraZeneca doses. This includes the amount the administration would lend to Mexico and Canada.
People are waiting in line to enter the United Center mass COVID-19 vaccination site on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 in Chicago.
(AP Photo / Shafkat Anowar)
Meanwhile, the problems with the vaccine supply chain have forced Canada to extend the time between the first shot and the second by up to four months so that everyone can be protected faster with the primary dose. The hope is to get all adults at least once by the end of June.
ABOVE CONVERSATION ON COVID19 BOSSES FOR ‘EVERY AMERICAN’ FOR HELP TO OTHER NATIONS ‘PSAKI
Canadian regulators have approved the vaccines Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, but it is difficult to obtain them.
Canada is about 20th in the number of doses administered, with about 8% of the adult population receiving at least one shot. This compares with around 38% in the UK and 22% in the US
The vaccine sharing plan has not been fully finalized, Psaki said. The addition of the “loan” may include other doses, but contains no further details, while vaccinated Americans are still the top priority of the government.
“Our first priority remains to vaccinate the American people,” Psaki said during the daily briefing, although he added that “ensuring our neighbors can contain the virus is a mission-critical step, and it is critical to ending the pandemic. “
Earlier this month, Mexican President Manuel López Obrador reportedly reported that President Biden had asked for vaccine assistance, but when asked by reporters whether the president would support the proposal, Psaki gave an emphatic ‘no’.
“No,” she said. “The president has made it clear that he is focusing on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to every American. That is our focus.”
She added: “But our focus, his focus, the focus of the government, is to ensure that every American is vaccinated, and if we achieve that, we are happy to discuss further steps further.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 81.4 million Americans have so far received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 44.1 million Americans have been fully vaccinated.
But the president has set a goal to vaccinate at least 100 million Americans within his first 100 days – according to a target official, this is realistic, and one that will surpass them, as the US vaccinates more Americans per day than officials initially believed.
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Meanwhile, as for other foreign aid, the Biden administration announced before the G-7 virtual meeting last month that it had pledged $ 2 billion for the global COVAX vaccine initiative using funds already allocated by Congress, plus an additional $ 2 billion over the next two years.
COVAX is a United Nations-backed alliance that aims to deliver vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable countries.
As part of the G-7 virtual meeting last month, the president also discussed a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including coordination on the production, distribution and distribution of vaccines.
Former President Trump signed an executive order in December that ensured that all Americans had access to the coronavirus vaccine before the U.S. government began helping nations around the world.
Trump administration officials at the time said the order was intended to reaffirm to the American people that the “priority was an America First approach.”
Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague, Madeline Farber, Remy Numa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.