Jun 9, 2021 5:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to share through the global COVAX alliance for donation to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
President Joe Biden was set to make the announcement Thursday in a speech before the start of the Group of Seven summit. Two hundred million doses enough to fully protect 100 million people would be shared this year, with the balance to be donated in the first half of 2022, the person said.
US to buy 500 million Pfizer vaccines to share globally, AP source says
President Joe Biden to make announcement Thursday
Zeke Miller
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FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 file photo, frozen vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are taken out to thaw, at the MontLegia CHC hospital in Liege, Belgium. Envoys from World Trade Organization member nations are taking up a proposal to ease patents and other intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines to help developing countries fight the pandemic, an idea backed by the Biden administration but opposed in other wealthy countries with strong pharmaceutical industries. On the table for a two-day meeting of a WTO panel opening Tuesday June 8, 2021, is a revised proposal presented by India and South Africa for a temporary IP waiver on coronavirus vaccines. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File) (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
U.S. buying 500M Pfizer vaccine doses to donate to the world
CNN
Vials of Pfizer coronavius vaccine and syringes sit on display.
WASHINGTON, DC The U.S. will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to share through the global COVAX alliance for donation to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
President Joe Biden was set to make the announcement Thursday in a speech before the start of the Group of Seven summit. Two hundred million doses enough to fully protect 100 million people would be shared this year, with the balance to be donated in the first half of 2022, the person said.
Health Experts Say Expanding Vaccine Access Requires More Than Patent Waivers
D.C. Health Nurse Manager Ashley Hennigan fills a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine during a walk-up clinic at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts outdoor Reach area on May 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Biolyse Pharma Corp., which makes injectable cancer drugs, was gearing up to start making generic biologic drugs, made from living organisms. Then the pandemic hit.
Watching the covid death toll climb, the company decided its new production lines and equipment could be converted to making vaccines for poorer countries without the means to do so.
Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images
During India’s first wave last fall, Dr. Harjit Singh Bhatti said he’d see one or two, maybe three extremely sick patients in his New Delhi hospital’s Covid-19 ward on any given day.
Now, there are so many people with severe Covid-19
that health care workers like him in several cities have to make difficult decisions about which patients to move to the ICU, who gets put on a ventilator, whom to give oxygen if those options are even available.
“Every minute is a life-and-death situation,” he said.
This is the grim reality of India’s second, record-breaking coronavirus surge. Hospitals are desperate for oxygen and more beds for Covid-19 patients. Reported daily cases are now topping 350,000, and deaths reached more than 3,200 on Wednesday alone, though some experts believe the true number could be two to five times higher. One model from the University of Washington predicts India could see as many as 1 million deaths by Augus