WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden will use his first big presidential moment on the global stage at a meeting of world leaders in the group of seven to announce that the US will soon start releasing $ 4 billion for an international effort to consolidate the acquisition and distribution of coronavirus vaccine to poor nations, White House officials said.
Biden will also encourage G-7 partners to meet their commitments to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, according to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the announcement. to Biden.
Former President Donald Trump declined to participate in the COVAX initiative because of his ties to WHO, the Geneva-based agency, which Trump accused of covering up China’s mistakes in treating the virus at the start of the public health crisis. Trump pulled the US out of the WHO, but Biden moved quickly after its inauguration last month to join and confirmed that the US will contribute to COVAX.
US $ 4 billion in funding was approved by Congress in December and will be distributed by 2022.
The United States is committed to working through COVAX to ensure “equitable distribution of vaccines and global funding,” White House Secretary of State Jen Psaki said Thursday.
It remains to be seen how the G-7 allies will accept Biden’s demands for greater international cooperation on vaccine distribution, given that the United States has refused to participate in the Trump-led initiative and that there are growing demands for the Biden administration. to distribute some products made in the USA. supply of vaccine abroad.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, called on US and European nations to allocate up to 5% of current vaccine supplies to developing countries – the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have begun to carry them out.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized “wild inequality and inequity.” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, noting that 10 countries received 75% of all vaccinations.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Biden raised the prospect of Canada receiving the vaccine from the unit of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. to describe a private conversation.
Canada received all of its doses of Pfizer from a company unit in Puurs, Belgium, and suffered supply disruptions.
But Biden, who announced last week that the United States will have enough vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million people, it remains focused for the time being to ensure that every American is inoculated, administration officials say.
The president, in his first national security memorandum last month, called on his administration to develop a framework for donating surplus vaccines once there is a sufficient amount in the United States.
The COVAX program has already missed its own goal of starting coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries, at the same time as fires have been launched in rich countries. WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion in 2021.
Guterres said on Wednesday that 130 countries had not received a single dose of vaccine and said that “at this critical time, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test in front of the global community.”
The group of seven industrialized nations are the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Italy. Friday’s G-7 meeting, Biden’s first presidency, takes place.
In addition to discussing the distribution of vaccines, Biden also intends to use the meeting to discuss the collective competitiveness of the G-7 countries and the economic challenges posed by China, according to the White House.
Biden is also scheduled to deliver a virtual address at the Munich Security Conference on Friday before traveling to Michigan to visit the Pfizer vaccine manufacturing facility.