US will donate 500m dose of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine

The U.S. will buy 500 million Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer to give to other countries, Joe Biden announced Thursday, a major expansion of the country’s efforts to help increase inoculation rates worldwide.

The Biden administration had agreed to buy doses of 200 million this year and 300 million in the first half of next year to ship to other countries, according to someone familiar with the deal, who confirmed previous report by The Washington Post.

The deal marks a significant expansion in demand for vaccine exports to the United States, following criticism that the country was accumulating doses rather than helping those in need.

The White House did not comment, while Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request to do so. Biden is expected to make the announcement in the UK, ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit in Cornwall.

The United States has monitored one of the fastest vaccine launches in the world, providing at least a dose to just over half of its population. But the demand for doses has dropped in recent weeks and now just over a million people receive vaccines every day – Down from 3.5 million in April.

Earlier, Biden pledged to donate 80 million of the country’s stock reserve, the first 25 million of which assigned last week. This promise has received criticism from some experts, who warn that more will be needed to help countries like India, which has seen a devastating second wave of the disease in recent months.

All doses of 500 million would be allocated through the Covax scheme supported by the World Health Organization, according to the person informed of the details, and would be given to 92 countries. The government part of the negotiations was led by Jeff Zients, the head of Biden’s Covid-19 working group, the person added.