The United States is buying 500 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine produced by Pfizer to donate to other countries, according to information published Wednesday (9) by The Washington Post.
The plan, which is expected to be announced by President Joe Biden at the G7 meeting in the UK this week, is part of the Democratic administration’s efforts to respond to demands for strong aid to the country’s immunization program. not having access to the necessary quantity of doses for their populations.
When he boarded the official plane to Europe on Wednesday, Biden told reporters he would make the announcement of a global vaccination strategy in the coming days.
According to the American newspaper, the White House and the pharmacist did not comment on the information.
The United States had already pledged to share more than 20 million doses of the vaccine by the end of June. This is in addition to the 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that the White House has already committed to distribute, totaling 80 million doses to be shipped by Americans abroad.
Last week, the government detailed part of the plan and said it would initially ship 6 million doses to Brazil and other countries in Latin America. The sharing will be through Covax, an initiative linked to the World Health Organization (WHO) for the distribution of doses to developing countries, and there are still no official details on the number of vaccination agents. that Brazil will receive.
As donated vaccines require two doses, the total that will reach Latin America and the Caribbean at this time will be enough to immunize 3 million people – the region has over 438 million people.
Despite the serious pandemic situation in Brazil, the country has not entered the list of those who will be vaccinated by direct bilateral distribution, such as India and Mexico.