President Biden will pledge $4 billion to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor nations in a call with world leaders on Friday, a move administration officials said will protect the public from the threat of new variants.
COVAX, an initiative led by the World Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine alliance, aims to deliver 1.8 billion doses to poorer countries in 2021.
Biden prioritized joining the global initiative after the Trump administration refused, citing the role of “the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”
Also on Friday, Biden will address America’s role in tackling the pandemic when he joins a virtual summit of G-7 leaders, marking his first major multilateral meeting.
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A senior administration official told reporters the pledge would not affect efforts to vaccinate people at home.
“This is a very separate initiative. That said, we do think it is vital to take a role in beating the pandemic globally, to put U.S. leadership out there to do this,” the official said. “Decreasing the burden of disease decreases the risk to everyone in the world, including Americans, and reduces the risk of variants occurring, like those we are seeing now.”
Virologists fear that the disease will continue to reemerge around the world if poorer countries are left behind in the global vaccination race. Reservoirs of the virus will make it more likely that variants, such as those first spotted in Britain or South Africa, could emerge with vaccine-resistant properties.
The official said the money, appropriated by a bipartisan congressional vote in December, would be released in two tranches. The first $2 billion will be sent immediately to support vaccines in 92 low- and middle-income countries.
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An additional $2 billion, spread over two years, was designed as a “call to action,” she said, “both to garner more pledges to expand COVAX and to be able to vaccinate more people but also to expand the prerequisite manufacturing, supply, and vaccination delivery services that are necessary to make sure that vaccinations can actually happen.”
