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With President Joe Biden’s target of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccines weeks ahead of time, the White House reported that the US is now in a position to assist Canada and Mexico in collecting millions of lifesaving shots.
On Thursday, the Biden administration unveiled the details of a proposal to “loan” a small number of vaccines to Canada and Mexico, as the president declared that the US is on the verge of reaching his 100-day injection target “way ahead of schedule.”
“ I am pleased to declare that we will achieve our target tomorrow, 58 days after taking office “According to Biden. He vowed to announce a new vaccination deadline next week, noting that the United States is on track to have enough of the three currently approved vaccines to protect the entire adult population in just ten weeks.
The White House announced ahead of Biden’s remarks that it was finalizing plans to send a total of 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada, marking the country’s first vaccine export. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the terms of the “loan” are still being worked out “While the specifics were still being ironed out, 2.5 million doses will be sent to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.
“Vaccinating the American people remains our top priority,” Psaki said. “Ensuring our neighbors can contain the virus is a mission-critical move and is mission-critical to ending the pandemic,” she added.
The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca has not yet been approved for use in the United States, but it has been approved by the World Health Organization. Hundreds of millions of doses of life-saving vaccine have been stockpiled in the United States, awaiting emergency use permission, sparking an international uproar that the vaccine is being withheld when it should be used elsewhere. Just 7 million AstraZeneca doses are ready to ship, according to the White House.
According to global public health advocates, affluent countries such as the United States must do much more to help stop the pandemic from spreading. According to a study published by the World Health Organization on Thursday, less than 7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Africa to date. That’s the same amount of money as the United States spends in a few days.
Biden did push for the United States to contribute financially to the COVAX alliance, which is supported by the United Nations and the World Health Organization and will share vaccine with over 90 low- and middle-income countries, but the US has yet to commit to exchanging any doses.
The target of 100 million doses was first declared on December 8, just days before the US had even one approved COVID-19 vaccine, let alone the three that have now earned emergency approval. Even so, it was widely believed to be within reach, although optimistically.
By the time Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, the United States had already given out 20 million shots at a pace of about 1 million every day, prompting criticism that Biden’s target was too modest. In his first 100 days, he increased it to 150 million doses.
The United States is currently injecting an average of 2.2 million doses per day, with the amount projected to increase significantly later this month due to an expected rise in vaccine availability.
The president has taken steps to speed up vaccine deliveries from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as increase the number of locations where shots can be obtained and people who can administer them, with the goal of increasing the nation’s capacity to inject doses as supply shortages ease.
Setting unrealistic standards runs the risk of an administration’s inability to reach them, as President Donald Trump did in May 2020 when he said the country had “prevailed” over the virus.
Around 80,000 people had died as a result of the virus in the world at the time. The death toll in the United States reached 538,000 people this week. Trump’s lax attitude and lack of integrity have led to the public’s lack of compliance with public safety regulations.
