Biden Commits to Exporting More Covid-19 Vaccines -- 3rd Update
May 17 2021 - 1:34PM
Dow Jones News
By Sabrina Siddiqui and Andrew Restuccia
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. plans to share 20 million doses of
Covid-19 vaccines produced by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson
& Johnson with the rest of the world, President Biden said, on
top of the 60 million AstraZeneca doses it had already promised to
export.
Mr. Biden said Monday that 80 million vaccine doses are expected
to be exported by the end of June. The AstraZeneca doses will be
delivered once federal authorities sign off.
"We know America can never be fully safe until the pandemic
that's raging globally is under control," Mr. Biden said, adding
that the 80 million doses the U.S. intends to export abroad is five
times more than any other nation has shared.
He said he hopes to announce progress on multilateral efforts to
address the pandemic during the G-7 leaders meeting in June.
The president said the U.S. was making progress in its
coronavirus response, adding that Covid-19 cases had gone down in
all 50 states for the first time since the beginning of the
pandemic. He encouraged those Americans who haven't yet been
vaccinated to get the shot.
Mr. Biden said Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19
coordinator, will lead the administration's global vaccination
efforts. Gayle Smith, a State Department official who is
coordinating the U.S.'s role in the global coronavirus response,
will also be a key part of the effort, Mr. Biden said.
Amid outbreaks in India and Brazil, and with more people in the
U.S. getting vaccinated, Mr. Biden has faced pressure to export
vaccines to other countries. The president had previously said he
wanted to ensure that Americans had access to the vaccine.
Demand for vaccines declined in the U.S. in recent weeks after
the number of daily doses administered reached a mid-April peak of
3.38 million. An average of 1.9 million doses were administered
each day over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Monday's announcement marks the first time the administration
has said it will share vaccines authorized in the U.S. Pfizer,
Moderna and J&J are all approved in the U.S.
Mr. Biden said in April that the U.S. would share as many as 60
million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations
following a review by the Food and Drug Administration. The
AstraZeneca vaccine hasn't yet been approved in the U.S.
The administration also committed a combined four million
AstraZeneca doses to Canada and Mexico.
Write to Sabrina Siddiqui at Sabrina.Siddiqui@wsj.com and Andrew
Restuccia at andrew.restuccia@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2021 14:19 ET (18:19 GMT)
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