The White House announced it has donated and shipped 110 million doses (NPR) of COVID-19 vaccines abroad and plans to donate hundreds of millions more in an effort to establish the United States as “the world’s arsenal of vaccines.” Meanwhile, health experts warn that global vaccine production needs to increase dramatically.
U.S. vaccine donations outstrip those from the European Union, which has donated (Politico) 7.9 million doses, and from China, which has donated 24.2 million doses, according to an EU document dated August 2. Still, the World Health Organization estimates that eleven billion doses are needed to control the pandemic, a prediction that prompted a group of health and international relations research centers to publish an open letter (CSIS) calling for the Joe Biden administration to back a more robust global vaccine strategy. At a news conference yesterday, Biden said the United States will help countries such as India manufacture more doses.
Analysis
“The U.S. has done more than any other country so far, but that’s more an indictment of the whole response, as opposed to the U.S. standing out in any positive way,” Duke University’s Krishna Udayakumar tells ABC.
“The U.S. government should undertake exactly such an effort, right now: an all-out response for an all-in global vaccination campaign. Such a campaign would advance U.S. economic and security interests and reboot American global leadership after years of decline,” the Chicago Community Trust’s Helene Gayle, Princeton University’s Gordon LaForge.
This In Brief looks at what history reveals about the COVID-19 vaccination challenge.
