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U.S. Officials Are Buying More Vaccine Doses To Donate To Other Countries

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Today, the United States answers a criticism from some parts of the world. It's a criticism that rich countries have taken a larger share of available COVID vaccines than poorer nations, which also need the vaccine. Even as a minority of Americans rejects the widely available medication, people in other countries are desperate for more. And today, President Biden will announce the United States is nearly doubling the amount of vaccine it is promising to donate to poorer countries. NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith is covering this story. Tam, good morning.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.

INSKEEP: What is the president going to say exactly?

KEITH: The president is going to announce 500 million additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be purchased. He'll make that announcement at a virtual COVID-19 summit that he's hosting. The summit is aimed at getting other wealthy countries, NGOs and others, to commit to vaccinating the world. This big bunch of doses is on top of another 500 million doses he announced that the U.S. would be purchasing earlier this year, all aimed at low- and lower-middle-income countries. This will bring the total U.S. contribution to 1.1 billion doses. That's a lot more than any other country by a lot. President Biden gave a preview in his speech at the U.N. yesterday.

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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will. We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible and expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments, to save lives around the world.

KEITH: Biden will also, at this conference, get behind an ambitious goal of having 70% of the world's population vaccinated by this time next year.

INSKEEP: OK, you said 1.1 billion doses in total on the way, which is a lot, but there are 7 billion people in the world. How big a deal is this?

KEITH: Yeah, it is a significant contribution, but there are a lot of questions, including whether this announcement will be a catalyst for other rich countries to donate more doses. I asked Carolyn Reynolds at the Pandemic Action Network to do some of that math for us, and she said that, to meet that 70% goal, about 5 billion more doses will be needed for low- and middle-income countries. So this U.S. contribution would be about a fifth of that. The challenge now, she said, is timing and delivery. She and other global health advocates are pressing to get shots in arms much faster. The majority of the doses the U.S. is donating won't be delivered until next year - so put that another way, most of the vaccines going to poor countries will be delivered in the third year of this deadly pandemic.

INSKEEP: Wow. Well, how else has the White House been responding to this criticism that the U.S. and other countries effectively hoarded doses for themselves?

KEITH: The White House insists that this isn't a choice, that they can vaccinate Americans and help vaccinate the world at the same time. And they've argued that some of the issues, like logistics and regulations, were out of their control. But one reason that poor countries don't have vaccines for their citizens is because wealthy countries were able to scoop up all the contracts and available doses early on, and now wealthy countries are talking about boosters and third doses for fully vaccinated people, which spurred some criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who yesterday opened the U.N. General Assembly in New York with this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANTONIO GUTERRES: A surplus in some countries; empty shelves in others. A majority of the wealthier world vaccinated; over 90% of Africans still waiting for their first dose. This is a moral indictment of the state of our world. It is an obscenity. We passed the science test, but we are getting an F in ethics.

KEITH: An F in ethics. He will be speaking at the summit today, along with some other people who've been critical of the pandemic response thus far.

INSKEEP: In a couple of seconds, what else is happening at the summit?

KEITH: This is really all about accountability. Not just getting countries and NGOs to make pledges - there have been plenty of pledges along the way - but actually following through and meeting those goals, not having those goals get missed or tossed out again.

INSKEEP: Tam, thanks for the news.

KEITH: You're welcome.

INSKEEP: NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.