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On Monday, a senior US administration official said that President Joe Biden announced the US will share an additional 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines with the world in the coming 6 weeks. Biden said those doses would come from existing US production of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks. He said, “We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that’s raging globally is under control”. It is one of the Biden administration’s prior commitments to share about 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of June. Point to be noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine is widely in use around the world but not yet authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration.

President Biden has also directed Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients to lead the administration’s efforts to share doses with the world. However, the Biden administration hasn’t yet announced how those doses will be shared or which countries will receive them. Biden said, “Our nation’s going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world. We will not use our vaccines to secure favors from other countries”. He also compared US to other countries like Russia and China that have sought to leverage their domestically produced doses. The United States already shared about 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine with Canada and Mexico. US manufactured Pfizer vaccine has started to export because the company has met its initial contract commitments to the federal government.

The recent move came as US States are experiencing a decline in vaccination numbers and countries around the world are looking to get vaccine to stop increase in Covid-19 cases. President Biden said that coronavirus cases in all 50 US States are now down for the first time since the beginning of pandemic. Last week, CDC announced new mask-wearing guideline for fully vaccinated Americans. Biden also said, “Only those who are not vaccinated will end up paying the price”. The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons, and homeless shelters. However, it clears the way for reopening workplaces, schools, and other venues. At least 130 million people or 37% of the US population is now fully inoculated with coronavirus vaccines and 157.1 million adults or 47.3% of the US population received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.