WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden will use his first major presidential moment on the world stage at Friday’s Group of Seven meeting of world leaders to announce that the US will soon start releasing $ 4 billion for an international effort to buy and strengthen coronavirus spread. vaccine for poor countries, White House officials said.
Biden will also encourage G-7 partners to implement their promises to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about a preview of Biden to give an announcement.
Former President Donald Trump refused to take part in the COVAX initiative because of his ties to the WTO, the agency in Geneva that accused Trump of covering up China’s mistakes in dealing with the virus at the start of the public health crisis. Trump pulled the US out of the WHO, but Biden moved quickly after his inauguration last month to rejoin and confirmed that the US would contribute to COVAX.
The US $ 4 billion funding was approved by Congress in December and will be distributed through 2022.
The US is committed to ‘ensuring fair distribution of vaccines and funding worldwide through COVAX’, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday.
It remains to be seen how G-7 allies will respond to Biden’s calls for greater international cooperation on the distribution of vaccines, as the US has refused to take part in the Trump initiative and there are growing calls for the government to Biden is to distribute to a number of U.S. manufacturers. vaccine supplies overseas.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the US and European countries to allocate up to 5% of the current vaccine supply to developing countries – the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have started using .
And earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “wildly unequal and unfair”. distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, noting that ten countries administered 75% of all vaccinations.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also predicted that Canada would get the vaccine from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. private conversation.
Canada receives all its Pfizer doses from a company in Puurs, Belgium, and has experienced supply disruptions.
But Biden, who announced last week that the US will have enough vaccine By the end of the summer to vaccinate 300 million people, it still remains focused on making sure every American is vaccinated, administration officials say.
In his first national security memorandum last month, the president called on his government to develop a framework to donate excess vaccines as soon as there is sufficient supplies in the US.
The COVAX program has already missed its own goal of initiating coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries, while shots have been rolled out in rich countries. WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion by 2021.
Guterres said on Wednesday that 130 countries had not yet received a single dose of the vaccine, declaring that “at this critical moment, the vaccine is tantamount to the greatest moral test before the world community.”
The group of seven industrialized countries is the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Canada and Italy. Friday’s meeting of the G-7, the first of Biden’s presidency, is virtually held.
In addition to discussing vaccines, Biden also plans to use the meeting to discuss the collective competitiveness and economic challenges of G-7 countries facing China, according to the White House.
Biden also plans to deliver a virtual address at the Munich Security Conference on Friday before traveling to Michigan to visit Pfizer’s vaccine manufacturing facility.