The Joe Biden government has ruled out giving excess doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to other countries, which are not used in the United States. Aides to the president said it is necessary to resolve the US situation first, and then to share the vaccines.
According to an article in The New York Times newspaper, the United States was investigating sending millions of doses of the stopped vaccines in the country to countries hard hit by the pandemic, such as Brazil, but the Biden government was firm on Friday to bury that possibility at least for now.
Responsible for overseeing White House actions against Covid-19, Jeff Zients said the United States will maintain stockpile of AstraZeneca so that doses are distributed among Americans when the emergency use authorization comes out. – the laboratory has not yet completed phase 3 testing in the country and therefore the FDA, a regulatory agency equivalent to Anvisa in Brazil, has not yet given its approval for the immunizer.
“We have a small stock of AstraZeneca which, if approved, we can send it to the American people,” Zients said on Friday.
Hours later, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki took the same path and said Biden would respond to the internal crisis first.
“We want to make sure that we are fully prepared and that we have the capacity to deliver the most effective vaccines to the American public. There are still 1,400 people dying every day in our country, and we need to focus on solving this problem. . “
The United States has a stockpile of 30 million AstraZeneca vaccines in storage in an Ohio state warehouse awaiting authorization for use.
According to the NYT, several countries – and the pharmaceutical company itself – are asking the United States to donate stopped doses of AstraZeneca, an immunizer used in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Brazil and other countries.
Biden went to the nationwide network this Thursday (11) and announced a roadmap so that all adult Americans can be vaccinated against Covid-19 starting May 1, zeroing priority lines and bringing the United States closer together from normal. July 4, when the country celebrates its independence.
Today, 25% of Americans have already received at least the first dose of the vaccine, but the country still faces a high plateau of cases (30 million) and deaths (530 thousand).
The U.S. government has already purchased more doses than needed to immunize the entire population, and Biden had said if there were any leftovers, they would be distributed to other countries that need the vaccine.
The United States bought 300 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 300 million of those produced by Moderna – both require two applications – and 200 million Janssen, single dose, in addition to AstraZeneca. The first three have already been cleared by the FDA and are being applied to the public.