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Biden administration misses goal for sharing vaccines with other nations, cites local hurdles
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden came up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June as a host of logistical and regulatory hurdles slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy.
Although the Biden administration has announced that about 50 countries and entities will receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses, the U.S. has shipped less than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries, according to an Associated Press tally. The White House says more will be sent in the coming days — with about 40 million doses expected to be shipped by the end of the week — and stresses that Biden has done everything in his power to meet the commitment.
It’s not for lack of doses. All the American shots are ready to ship, the White House said. Rather, it’s taking more time than anticipated to sort through a complex web of legal requirements, health codes, customs clearances, cold-storage chains, language barriers and delivery programs. Complicating matters even further is that no two shipments are alike.
One country requires an act of its Cabinet to approve the vaccine donation, others require inspectors to conduct their own safety checks on the U.S. doses, and still others have yet to develop critical aspects of their vaccine distribution plans to ensure the doses can reach people’s arms before they spoil.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said all intended recipient countries had received formal U.S. offers of a specific number and type of vaccine, and all legal and logistical hurdles on the U.S. side had been cleared.
“The remaining doses will be shipped in the coming weeks as countries complete their own domestic set of operational regulatory and legal processes. They’re specific to each country,” Zients said Thursday. “We will continue to share tens of millions of U.S. doses over the summer months as we help lead the fight to end the pandemic across the globe.”
The White House declined to specify which nations were struggling with which local hurdles, saying it is working with recipient nations on an individual basis to remove obstacles to delivery. ...
ALSO SEE: Pakistan receives 2.5 million Moderna doses from U.S.
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