WASHINGTON The US plans to send a combined 4 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada in the first export of shots, the White House said on Thursday.
Press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden government was finalizing efforts to distribute 2.5 million doses to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada as a ‘loan’. The details are still being worked out.
“Our first priority remains to vaccinate the American people,” Psaki said during the daily briefing. But she added that “ensuring that our neighbors can contain the virus is a critical step, it is critical to end the pandemic.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved for use in the US, but the company is expected to share the results of its late-stage US investigation and apply for clearance in the coming weeks. The World Health Organization, European regulators and dozens of countries have approved the shots based on studies conducted in the UK and elsewhere.
Tens of millions of doses are stored in the US if authorized, causing an international outcry that life-saving doses are withheld when used elsewhere.
Over the past week, several countries have suspended their use of the vaccine following blood clots in a few dozen of the millions of people across Europe who got the chance. Europe’s drug regulator said on Thursday that the shots did not increase the overall risk of blood clots and that the benefits outweighed the risks. Yet the debate has raised fears that the security issue will undermine confidence in AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which is key to immunization efforts in several countries.
Psaki said several countries had requested access to the U.S. vaccines, but she did not add anything for further distribution.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said via Twitter that Mexico was receiving the vaccine as a result of talks between President Joe Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador earlier this month. “Good news!” he wrote.
“God bless America for coming to our rescue,” said Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province. He thanks Biden for his willingness to share the vaccines.
‘And as soon as I get it, I’ll call you a champion, but I have to get the delivery first, so thank you. I appreciate it. We waited. This is what real neighbors do. They are helping each other in a crisis, ‘he said. “We take all the vaccines you can give, so this is great news.”
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.
Although Canada’s economy is now interconnected with the US, Washington has not yet allowed one of the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses manufactured in America to be exported, and Canada has had to turn to Europe and Asia.
The problems with vaccine supply have forced Canada to extend the time between the first shot and the second by four months so that everyone can be protected faster with the primary dose. The hope is to get all adults at least one shot by the end of June.
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 more than 8% of the adult population receiving at least one shot. This compares with almost 45% in the UK and almost 30% in the US, Mexico, is about 10th in the number of doses administered, with 3.3% of the total population getting at least one chance.
AstraZeneca is one of the vaccines that received emergency approval in Mexico, and Mexico already has 870,000 doses of the vaccine. It also has Pfizer, SinoVac and Sputnik V for a total of more than 8 million doses. One million doses of SinoVac arrived from Hong Kong on Thursday.
The US stockpile of the AstraZeneca vaccine has also been controversial with other allies. The European Union of 27 countries has found it difficult to approach Biden over the sharing of the vaccine so that the disease could be stopped overseas, which would not only help save lives but also improve economic growth.
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Sherman reports from Mexico City and Gillies from Toronto.