Biden’s White House to Announce Global Covid-19 Vaccine Plan

(CNN) — United States President Joe Biden, has completed its plan to distribute millions of coronavirus vaccines worldwide after months of deliberation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously hinted that an announcement was imminent, and sources familiar with the plans said it could be revealed on Thursday or Friday.

“In a few days, in fact possibly tomorrow, the president is going to announce in more detail the plan that he has developed to distribute 80 million vaccines worldwide that we have at our disposal or that will soon be available to us,” said Blinken. Wednesday at the US Embassy in Costa Rica.

Highlighting the United States’ contribution of US $ 2 billion to the World Health Organization’s vaccination effort, Covax, and another US $ 2 billion pledge to be delivered between now and the end of 2022, Blinken told CNN Español on Wednesday the United States will distribute the doses without conditions.

“We will begin to make available around the world, including in the hemisphere, 80 million vaccines that we now have access to, which, as I said, we will begin to make available,” Blinken told CNNE.

“But this is the important thing: we will distribute those vaccines in coordination with Covax, doing some of the work directly ourselves, we will do it on the basis of equity. We will do it on the basis of science, of necessity, and we will do it without political ties, which has not been the case, or some other countries that have committed to providing vaccines.

This week, officials will detail which specific countries will receive the vaccines while warning that it is expected to be a long and complicated process, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.

For months, administration advisers and federal health officials have deliberated on the best way to share the extra doses of vaccines. The United States has come under intense pressure to help other nations, and several of Biden’s top advisers, and the president himself, have responded to requests for help from their allies.

Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, whom Biden recently appointed to lead efforts to address the pandemic globally, has worked closely with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, sources say.

Administration officials are expected to establish the criteria they agreed upon to determine which countries receive the doses. It remains to be seen whether the United States will unilaterally decide which countries receive which vaccines, or whether the international vaccine initiative known as Covax will play a major role in deciding who will receive them. It could also be a combination of the two, officials say.

One of the most complicated parts of the decision-making process has been the enormous operational task that sharing vaccines will require. Zients and Sullivan have worked with various federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and the State Department, to coordinate this, in addition to their diplomatic counterparts.

Two big factors that will be important are quality control and a country’s public health infrastructure.

At this time, only vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson will be distributed, an official told CNN.

Biden said in May that the United States would ship 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries by July 4. But, as of Wednesday night, those doses had not been approved by a federal review of safety and efficacy by the US Food and Drug Administration, another official said.

“We need to help fight disease around the world to stay safe here at home and do the right thing to help other people. It’s the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing, it’s the strongest thing we can do, “Biden said last month in remarks at the White House.

“We want to lead the world with our values, with this demonstration of our innovation and ingenuity, and the fundamental decency of the American people,” he added.

Yes OK Covid-19 cases have decreased in the US. Along with an aggressive vaccination campaign, the Biden administration’s global vaccination effort comes as many countries continue to fight the virus.

While the covid-19 outbreak in India made headlines recently, cases have also skyrocketed in countries around India, from Nepal in the north to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the south. And it’s not just India’s neighbors: Farther out in Southeast Asia, infections have also increased in Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

The rapid resurgence of the virus has put enormous pressure on health systems and medical supplies in these countries and fueled new calls for international assistance amid the deepening crisis.

“Just as the United States was the arsenal of democracy in World War II, in the battle against the covid-19 pandemic, our nation will be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world,” Biden said last month, and He added: “just as democracies led the world in the darkness of World War II, democracies will lead the world out of this pandemic.”

CNN’s Nicole Gaouette and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

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