In a White House press briefing yesterday, President Joe Biden sanctimoniously announced that the United States, which has been hoarding vaccines that it doesn’t even need, now intends to beat Russia and China by leading the world’s democracies in vaccinating the rest of the world to defeat the pandemic. He warned that if the pandemic flourishes abroad, it’s a risk to the U.S., so the U.S. will deal with that by making AstraZeneca available (as soon as the FDA says it’s safe) plus the Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer vaccines, “as they become available,” to the rest of the world (see separate item). Biden promised that over the next six weeks, the U.S. will send 80 million doses overseas, or 13% of the vaccines produced in the U.S.
“You know, there’s a lot of talk about Russia and China influencing the world with vaccines. We want to lead the world with our values—with this demonstration of our innovation, ingenuity and the fundamental decency of the American people,” Biden stated. “Just as in WWII America was the arsenal of democracy, in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation is going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world.” This will be a multilateral effort to end the pandemic, he added, reporting that progress in this effort will be announced at the G7 summit in June.
