Regarding the infamous 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine that president Joe Biden promised to export over a month ago to needy countries, they are all still safely stockpiled in the United States. Samantha Power (of all people, now Biden’s USAID administrator) told the Senate Appropriations Committee last week: “It’s obviously challenging because so many countries face this need right now.” But the weeks drag on over decisions that could easily have been made months ago. She enlightened the committee: “75% of the doses we share will likely be shared through COVAX. 25% of whatever our excess supply is that we are donating will be reserved to be able to deploy bilaterally.” The percentages clearly suggest that they mean for the 60 million AstraZeneca doses, the 75% — now entering their fourth month of storage — are to be given, via COVAX, to the poorer countries; and the 20 million mRNA doses from Pfizer and Moderna, the 25%, are reserved for special deals with countries, one-by-one, clearly with strings attached.
Despite Biden’s “holier-than-thou” announcement that we don’t make special deals, the first of the three factors in decision-making that Power mentioned made clear the geopolitical considerations behind the agonizingly drawn-out decision-making process. The first factor is “the relationship we have with the countries…” Pretty clear. But Associated Press warned readers that Power’s testimony should not be taken as a sign of the U.S. being on the verge of actually releasing any of the 80 million doses: “Administration officials cautioned that Biden had not yet signed off on the precise split.…” At least with Nero, one got to hear some violin music as the place burned down.
