The presidente Joe Biden affirmed this Thursday that The United States will not ask for anything in exchange for the 500 million vaccines against Covid-19 that it will donate to other countries.
Biden formally announced the purchase and donation, by the United States, of 500 million vaccines to the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to deliver them to low-income countries, in statements to the press that accompanies him in Cornwall, in the southwest of UK, where he will attend the G7 summit.
“Our vaccine donations do not include pressure for favors or possible concessions“Said the president, adding that the US is doing it to save lives:”To end this; that’s it, period. “
Today, I’m announcing that the United States will donate half a billion new Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries.
These Pfizer vaccines will save millions of lives around the world, and be produced through the power of American manufacturing.
– President Biden (@POTUS) June 10, 2021
The president indicated that his government adopted this measure because it is “its responsibility” and it has “the humanitarian obligation“to save as many lives as I can.
He added that as long as the pandemic continues, there is still the risk of new mutations, and recalled its impact on the growth of the global economy, the increase in instability and the weakening of governments.
“The United States wants to be the arsenal of vaccines in the fight against Covid-19, as when it was the arsenal of democracy during World War II“, he remarked.
Biden met Boris Johnson on the first leg of his first international tour as president. (Photo: EFE)
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Biden also pointed out that this is the largest individual purchase and donation of Covid-19 vaccines ever made by a country.
The US will begin shipping the doses in August, so that 200 million vaccines are already delivered by the end of this year and the rest in the first half of 2022.
The vaccines will be distributed through the COVAX mechanism, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Pfizer will produce the doses at several of its plants in the United States, such as Kalamazoo (Michigan), MacPherson (Kansas), Chesterfield (Missouri) and Andover (Massachusetts).
APPOINTMENT WITH BORIS JOHNSON
Biden made the remarks after meeting in Cornwall’s Carbis Bay on Thursday with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Vaccines, climate change and the new Atlantic Charter, signed by the two leaders, were some of the issues discussed at the meeting.
The United Kingdom is the first leg of Biden’s international tour – his first trip abroad since he became president – which will also take him to Brussels and Geneva..
On my first foreign trip, we’re going to make it clear — the United States and the democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the challenges of our new age. pic.twitter.com/Mb0eDT00UK
– President Biden (@POTUS) June 10, 2021
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