MILESTONE. The total of vaccines donated by the US to the world increases to more than 1.1 billion. | Photo: Efe.
The United States will purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine to donate to countries in need. President Joe Biden is expected to make the announcement at a virtual summit on Wednesday with the goal of ending the coronavirus pandemic.
The context: The Biden administration already bought 500 million doses of vaccines in July to distribute them in tranches to the poorest countries through the Covax mechanism, the initiative led by the World Health Organization, Gavi and the Coalition for Innovations in Preparedness for Epidemics
- Jeff Zients, White House coronavirus coordinator, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, specified in an article that the total of donated vaccines rises to more than 1.1 billion.
- “For every injection we have put into a US arm to date, we are now donating about three injections globally,” the officials’ note reads.
And now that? This Wednesday, the White House will host a virtual summit to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden seeks to take a more visible role amid criticism that his administration has done little on the world stage.
- The summit, which coincides with this week’s United Nations General Assembly meetings, will be divided into four sessions, according to administration officials who anticipated the event with reporters on Tuesday.
- Biden will preside over the first session, on the need for vaccination. The director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres; heads of state and other aides, according to the White House.
Main source of the news: The Washington Post.
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