Wednesday morning, White House vaccination coordinator Dr. Bechara Choucair confirmed a report that the United States will double Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine purchases, and donate them to other countries.
The report cited anonymous White House officials, and when ABC15 asked about their accuracy, Dr. Choucair said the official announcement would come Wednesday.
“We know for us to be able to put this pandemic behind us as a globe, we have to be able to get as many people vaccinated here in the United States, as well as globally,” he said.
That’s why today we are announcing that we are purchasing another 500 million doses that we will be able to donate and make available to countries across the globe, which will make the total number of doses that the United States is contributing globally at more than 1.1 billion doses.
The decision comes two weeks after a plea from world health leaders of the World Health Organization (WHO) for countries like the U.S. to wait on administering booster doses, and put more of a focus on donating to countries in need.
“Throwing a life jacket at people who already have one is not the most effective way to save lives,” WHO Principal Legal Officer Steve Solomon said during that meeting.
A little more than one week after the WHO meeting, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected widespread Pfizer booster shots in the U.S., but recommended them for those 65 and older, and at-risk individuals.
World health leaders said if a city, state, or country reaches herd immunity, it’s not the end of the pandemic.
As health leaders have been reporting, science proves that each time the virus spreads from one person to another it has the ability to mutate into a stronger more evolved version of COVID-19. They’ve shared that’s how the Delta variant formed, which is now the dominant variant in the United States.
World health leaders said booster doses won’t do much to end the pandemic because new variants can still form in countries with low vaccination rates. If a variant rises that’s strong enough to evade the current vaccines, it can still spread to other parts of the world.
“There is a false sense of security that if your population reaches a certain percentage, you will be safe,” WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said in the meeting.
It’s happening right now in the U.S.--My home country! Where they have high vaccination coverage. The Delta variant will not be the last variant of concern that you’ll hear us talking about.
During the meeting, world health leaders set a goal to end the pandemic, saying it would take 10% of each country vaccinated by the end of September and 40% by the end of the year.
“The low-income countries,” Solomon said in the meeting, “Today, are at 1.4, 1.5, 1.7% coverage.”
With the extra purchase the White House is announcing Wednesday, Dr. Choucair said the 1.1 billion donated doses is more than what has been given in the U.S.
“That’s three times more doses that we’re contributing to the world than we’ve administered here in the United States.”
World health leaders said it will take 2 billion doses to get the world to the 40% goal, and right now, the world produces about 1.5 billion per month.