Biden announces plan to share first 25mn coronavirus vaccine doses with the world

Biden announces plan to share first 25mn coronavirus vaccine doses with the world

WASHINGTON “” The United States is set to donate an initial 25 million doses of surplus coronavirus vaccines overseas through the United Nations-backed COVAX program, President Joe Biden has announced. "As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable," the US president said in a statement on Thursday. "And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home," he said. The doses, which will be shipped from federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, will add to 76 million doses already distributed under the COVAX initiative to countries short on vaccine supplies. The 25 million shots also come as part of a bid from the White House to share as many as 80 million doses globally by the end of June, mostly through the COVAX program. At least 75 percent of the 25 million doses will be shared through COVAX, Biden said, "including approximately 6 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 7 million for South and Southeast Asia, and approximately 5 million for Africa, working in coordination with the African Union and the Africa