On Thursday, Anthony Fauci informed the World Health Organization that the Biden administration would participate in the WHO vaccine sharing project. This reverses President Donald Trump’s approach to America First. Fauci says the goal is to ensure “equitable access” to vaccines for all countries in the world, both rich and poor.
Americans struggling to get vaccinated have a right to know how exchanging doses with poor countries will affect their own vaccination capacity.
President Biden has come under pressure from the public health community to share the vaccine supply that the US has pre-purchased just before all Americans who want to receive it.
The vaccine sharing project, with the acronym COVAX, raises money to buy vaccines for poor countries, but also calls on richer countries to donate effective doses. The principles of COVAX dose distribution, launched on December 18, are controversial in France, England, Canada and other countries struggling to vaccinate their own populations. COVAX wants countries to split their doses as they receive them, rather than wait to see what’s left. So far, Norway has agreed.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says it is unfair for younger and healthier adults in countries like the United States to get injections before frail and elderly people in poor countries. He calls it a “catastrophic moral failure.”
Similarly, Doctors Without Borders Kate Elder objects “if a healthy 20-year-old from New Jersey gets vaccinated in front of a medical worker in South Sudan.”
Bruce Aylward, a WHO adviser, says it is unacceptable for a country to vaccinate its entire population before offering doses to people at greatest risk in poorer countries.
Public health experts at Duke University also argue that high-risk groups in poor countries should receive the vaccine in front of the American public. A report by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center complains that rich countries monopolize the initial supply.
Thursday’s White House statement on vaccine sharing says the United States will comply with “sufficient” delivery here. What does “enough” mean? When only those most at risk are vaccinated, as the globalists suggest, or when were all Americans shot? The public needs a clear answer to this question.
There are strong reasons to oppose the COVAX principles of vaccine sharing.
First, American taxpayers poured billions into Operation Warp Speed to develop vaccines, understanding that they would get much of the initial production. When Trump refused to join COVAX, The New York Times called the decision “vaccine nationalism,” but Americans desperate to be vaccinated are unlikely to be concerned about political correctness.
Second, the United States is working to reach the population’s immunity by summer, which scientists predict will require vaccination of about 70 percent of the population. Deviation of a certain vaccine intake to COVAX would jeopardize this goal.
On Monday, the International Chamber of Commerce joined the demand for equitable distribution of vaccines, arguing that helping poor nations will benefit the economies of the rich. It is true in the long run, but vaccinating a quarter of each country’s population, as proposed by COVAX, would require the United States and other developed countries to return to normal this year.
Third, as new viruses emerge, vaccination becomes even more of a timed race. Otherwise, a variant that does not respond to the vaccine may occur. Moderna announced on Monday that its vaccine is somewhat less effective against the newly identified variant in South Africa. People may need an annual booster against emerging strains.
In the last two weeks, both the European Union and the United States have been hit by unexpected news of production failures. On Monday, the European Union threatened to ban AstraZeneca from exporting any dose until it fulfilled its contractual obligations. The EU puts its own people first.
This is a lesson for America. Decisions on vaccine sharing should not be left to public health “experts” whose globalist views are now on the rise in Washington, DC. Helping the world is important, but America must take care of it first.
Betsy McCaughey is the author of The Next Pandemic.