The US likely won't to meet its goal of sending 80 million SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses abroad by the end of the month due to regulatory and other requirements, the Washington Post reports.
Last month, President Joe Biden announced that the US would be sharing, in addition to the already promised 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 20 million doses of the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The US said it would be working with COVAX, the international vaccine effort, to distribute most of those vaccines.
But as the Post now reports, fewer than 10 million doses – mostly to Mexico, Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan – have been shipped. The holdup, it adds, is largely due to the legal, logistical, and regulatory requirements of both the US and recipient countries.
As the Hill notes, the Biden Administration has further announced it is allocating an additional 55 million doses to send abroad, 41 million of which will be distributed through COVAX to countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and 14 million of which will be sent directly to countries including Colombia, Argentina, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.