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By Jeff Mason and Carl O'Donnell
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - The White House laid out a
plan on Thursday for the United States to share 25 million
surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world and said it would
lift some restrictions to allow other countries to more easily
buy U.S.-made supplies for vaccine production.
President Joe Biden said the United States would share the
vaccines without expectation of political favors in return. He
has pledged to share some 80 million COVID-19 vaccines
internationally this month.
The United States will donate nearly 19 million doses
through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program, Biden
said in a statement. Through COVAX, some 6 million doses would
go to Latin America and the Caribbean, about 7 million doses to
South and Southeast Asia and roughly 5 million to Africa.
The remaining doses, amounting to just over 6 million, would
go directly from the United States to countries including
Canada, Mexico, India and South Korea, he said.
"We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract
concessions," Biden said. "We are sharing these vaccines to save
lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic,
with the power of our example and with our values."
Although the United States is working through the COVAX
facility co-run by the World Health Organization, the White
House retains final say in which countries receive U.S. doses
and how many, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The White House will base donation decisions on "factors
included achieving global coverage, responding to crises ... and
helping as many countries as possible," Sullivan said, adding
the United States intends to prioritize its neighbors, including
Canada, Mexico and countries in Central and South America.
Reuters reported last month that the United States was
considering prioritizing its own hemisphere, with Latin America
a beneficiary.
The 25 million doses would be delivered quickly, with some
going out as soon as Thursday, the White House said.
Biden has come under pressure from the world community to
share the U.S. surplus of COVID-19 vaccines.
For months, the White House remained focused on getting
Americans vaccinated as the coronavirus killed more than half a
million people in the United States.
But the president has promised the United States would
become a supplier to other countries and pledged to send abroad
at least 20 million doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE
, Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson
vaccines, on top of some 60 million AstraZeneca Plc
doses he had already planned to give to other countries.
The 25 million doses Biden announced on Thursday will not
include supply from AstraZeneca, the White House said.
International organizations including the United Nations and
the World Bank welcomed the announcement. "It’s a good start,
and I am hoping that more doses will be made available," World
Bank President David Malpass told Reuters.
LIFTING SOME RESTRICTIONS
The White House is also removing special powers it granted
through the Defense Production Act (DPA) to certain vaccine
makers that received U.S. funding but do not yet have U.S.
approvals, including AstraZeneca, Sanofi SA/GlaxoSmithKline Plc
, and Novavax Inc.
The DPA ratings give U.S. producers priority access to
supplies and equipment needed to manufacture the vaccines that
are in short supply around the world. Lifting them could free up
raw materials for major vaccine makers elsewhere, especially the
Serum Institute of India (SII).
Invoking the DPA helped build a huge local vaccine
production system, while some companies overseas have struggled
to get needed supplies to ramp up vaccine production.
SII, the world's largest vaccine maker and a top supplier of
COVID-19 shots to low- and middle-income countries, had
criticized the use of the DPA, and Reuters reported in May that
a shortage of U.S.-made raw materials would hit production of
Novavax's vaccine.
"That is a start, at least – the Biden administration acting
to stop harming the global response. Now, we need a DPA for the
world," said Peter Maybarduk, access to medicines director at
consumer watchdog Public Citizen, which has argued the United
States should use the DPA to scale up global vaccine production.
White House COVID-19 adviser Jeff Zients said the United
States would continue to donate additional doses throughout the
summer as more supply becomes available.
Concern has been growing about the huge disparity in
vaccination rates in developing countries versus advanced
economies.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Thursday
urged the Group of Seven advanced economies to release any
excess COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries as soon as
possible, and called on manufacturers to ramp up production to
benefit poor countries.
Pfizer has begun independently exporting millions of its
U.S.-made shots largely to countries in Central and South
America, Reuters reported last month.
Many Latin American countries have a dire need for COVID-19
vaccines as they combat outbreaks. Brazil has been one of the
world’s hardest-hit countries by the pandemic, reporting more
than 15 million cases and 400,000 deaths.
Peru this week revised its COVID-19 death toll, making it
the country with the worst per-capita fatality rate.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Carl O'Donnell; additional
reporting by Allison Martell and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Bill
Berkrot and Peter Cooney)
