An ardent advocate of protecting some of the world’s poorest countries against Covid-19 has been chosen to lead the Biden administration’s vaccine diplomacy in an effort to correct prosperous countries to spread immunizations evenly around the world.
Gayle Smith, a former US agency for international development administrator and CEO of the ONE campaign to eradicate poverty and preventable diseases, will take on the role, a new post at the Department of State.
With about 62 million people in the United States already fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Monday made a case to ensure more people are protected abroad.
“We have a duty to other countries to get the virus under control here in the United States,” he said. Shining at the Department of Foreign Affairs said. “But soon the United States will have to step up our work and act globally. Because again, just by stopping Covid worldwide, Americans will be saved for the long term. ‘
Mr. Blinken said other countries had asked the United States “with increasing desperation” to share their vaccine supply. “We hear you, and I promise we can move as fast as possible,” he said.
Me. Smith will focus primarily on coordinating the international response, even if the virus changes and threatens to spread the pandemic. So far, the United States has contributed or promised $ 4 billion to Covax, the global vaccination campaign, mainly on low- and middle-income countries, and Congress approved $ 11 billion abroad last month to fight the pandemic in addition to billions of dollars. which was sent to foreign nations and non-governmental organizations in the first year of the outbreak.
According to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, more than 665 million vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
Yet China, India and Russia have already surpassed the United States in providing vaccines worldwide as a tool for diplomacy. Just last month, the ONE campaign encouraged President Biden to share 5 percent of his doses abroad when 20 percent of Americans were vaccinated, and to increase the doses worldwide as more people in the United States receive it. According to the group, the US government has purchased 453 million excess vaccine doses.
Me. Smith, who will receive her second vaccine shot on Tuesday, helped lead the Obama administration’s response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak across borders in West Africa and the United States, while the World Health Organization was halted by staff cuts and other shortages of resources. Officials said the UN agency has since promoted closer collaboration between scientists and health experts to better detect diseases.
The Trump administration withdrew from the WTO last year after refusing to blame China for not stopping Covid-19 where it originated, but the United States has again pledged to work with the agency under Mr.
“If the virus moves faster than us, it’s winning,” she said. Smith said after Blinken announced her appointment on Monday. “But with unity of purpose, science, vigilance and leadership, we can surpass any virus.”
Mr. Blinken said that by the end of May, there will be enough vaccines for all adults in the United States after the deaths of more than 550,000 Americans due to the virus since February 2020. More than 2.8 million people worldwide have been killed by the pandemic.
Other world leaders have begun to intensify demands for affluent countries to share vaccines with poorer countries; On Sunday, Pope Francis called the vaccines an essential tool to stop the pandemic.