Biden Gets U.S. Into Vaccine Diplomacy Race as Stockpiles Rise
Biden Gets U.S. Into Vaccine Diplomacy Race as Stockpiles Rise
(Bloomberg) -- Through the early months of global vaccinations against Covid-19, the U.S. hoarded shots while China, Russia and others distributed doses to desperate nations throughout the world.
That’s starting to change.
Vaccine shipments from the U.S. have begun, as domestic supply increasingly outweighs demand. That’s allowed President Joe Biden to pivot to the role of vaccine statesman after months of refusing to do what Europe, India, China and Russia have done: export a portion of their vaccines before domestic demand was fully met.
Biden vowed Tuesday that the U.S. will be an “arsenal for fighting Covid-19” globally, including by giving away 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot while the nation’s vaccine factories churn out others.
“It’s a significant humanitarian commitment,” Biden said. “We’re going to move as quickly as we can to get as many doses of Moderna and Pfizer as possibly can be produced, and export those around the world.”
The shift comes at a critical time. After more than 3.2 million deaths, the world is confronting a new wave of Covid-19 infections, despite about 1.2 billion shots having been given, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. Brazil has exceeded 400,000 confirmed deaths, with little end in sight, while India’s surging case load of 20 million prompted the U.S. to restrict travel from the world’s second-most populous nation.
Developing nations including Argentina, Mexico and India have clamored for American vaccine help. While the U.S. is one of the world’s major producers, it’s exported only a few million shots so far compared with 217 million doses shipped from China, 94 million from the European Union, 67 million from India, and about 12 million from Russia, according to Airfinity, a science information and analytics company.
The Biden administration on Monday backed Pfizer Inc.’s move to begin exporting U.S.-made doses of its coronavirus vaccine. Meanwhile, India, South Africa and other countries are continuing to press the U.S. to ease intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines.
The U.S. focus on vaccinating its population first has paid off, allowing it to shift some attention abroad just as more transmissible mutations of the virus gain a stronger foothold. While India, China and Russia got a head start on vaccine diplomacy, they now lag well behind the U.S. in inoculating their own populations, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker -- a choice that has proved especially costly for India.
Despite sending vaccines abroad, Russia has only inoculated about 20% of its population, who are increasingly skeptical about taking the shot. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, citizens sought out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a faster rate than China’s Sinovac, which has been reported to be less effective. And even Europe found itself under heavy criticism for not exporting vaccines initially before reversing course.
The U.S. contribution to global efforts will be modest at first, focused on accelerating deliveries of vaccine-related supplies to India as well as distributing some of its growing stockpile of shots. Biden said Tuesday that by July 4, his goal is to have sent “about 10% of what we have to other nations.”
The president’s first key question is how to divide up initial shipments of as many as 60 million unused AstraZeneca Plc vaccines already produced and awaiting a safety review. The shot hasn’t been authorized for use in the U.S. and with abundant supplies of three other vaccines, may never be needed domestically.
Biden has said that he intends to send at least some AstraZeneca doses to India, while also hinting at help for Canada, Mexico and nations in Central America. But the U.S. has fielded requests from countries around the world seeking whatever vaccines they can get.
“There is huge demand for vaccine all over the world,” Gayle Smith, the State Department’s global Covid response coordinator, told reporters Friday. “We have not made a decision yet as to criteria for allocating those vaccines.”
Besides representing a vote of confidence in rising U.S. vaccination rates, Biden’s decision to begin exports will be a signal that the U.S. is pushing back against Russian and Chinese efforts to enhance their so-called soft diplomatic power by distributing shots to strategically important regions -- including many nations in the Western Hemisphere.
“The U.S. needs to find a way to get credit for this given the Chinese and Russians are busy doing this right now,” Thomas Shannon, a former under secretary of state for political affairs, said in an interview.
Biden has already taken three key steps to fuel global supply. One was a partnership with the other so-called Quad nations -- Australia, Japan and India -- to boost vaccine manufacturing in India through 2022. Another was arranging a partnership between Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson to increase production of the J&J shot.
That deal won’t substantially ramp up production until late 2021, well beyond the point when the U.S. expects to have vaccinated its entire willing adult population, meaning it’s likely to increase exports.
Biden has also pledged $4 billion to Covax, a global vaccine procurement initiative.
Vaccine Surplus
Under both former President Donald Trump and Biden, the U.S. ordered hundreds of millions more doses than it could use, part of a strategy to hedge its bets on which company would produce a successful vaccine and to ensure sufficient supply for children and potential booster shots. The U.S. orders have been accompanied by legal constraints on exports of doses provided to the administration.
In a report last month, Duke University researchers predicted the U.S. may have 300 million excess doses by the end of July, though that was before some production issues slowed output.
“The deep investment in ensuring availability in the U.S. has paid dividends,” Krishna Udayakumar, one of the authors of the Duke report, said in an interview. “The U.S. government can now start prioritizing the global perspective.”
Aid groups want the U.S. to take a more dramatic step than simply allowing exports by also leaning on manufacturers to share intellectual property behind their shots so that low-income nations can make the vaccines themselves. U.S. trade chief Katherine Tai met last month with key officials at Pfizer and AstraZeneca to discuss a proposed waiver of intellectual-property protections floated by India and South Africa.
“The Biden administration needs to do more to pressure the domestic industry to participate in tech-transfer initiatives,” said Kate Elder, senior vaccine policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign.
But the administration has been cool to the proposal so far, and Biden said Tuesday he hasn’t yet made a decision. Some of Biden’s senior advisers have argued publicly and privately that vaccine patents aren’t useful without manufacturing expertise, capacity and drug ingredients, and that the administration’s goal is boosting supply of vaccines overall.
After moving in fits and starts, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday that the U.S. plans to elaborate on a “fuller strategy” in the coming weeks.
“We fully recognize that there is an urgent need for the U.S. to step up to the plate to deliver for the world to end this pandemic and then help to recover from this pandemic,” Sullivan told the Aspen Security Forum. “Vaccines are a part of that, and our 60 million AstraZeneca is a step --but billions of doses ultimately are needed, and that’s going to mean manufacturing logistics and getting shots in arms.”
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