US to donate 500 million Pfizer vaccines to low-income countries

The local media reported on Wednesday (local time) that the U.S. will donate 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 92 low-income countries and the African Union by the first half of next year. In particular, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be provided with 200 million doses by the end of this year and 300 million doses by the first half of next year. The U.S. government had negotiated with Pfizer for several weeks. The vaccines will be delivered via COVAX, an international project to share vaccines.

It was reported that U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the above plan during the G7 summit to be held in the U.K. starting Friday. The U.S. media reported that CEO of Pfizer Albert Bourla will also attend the summit. Previously, the U.S. government announced a plan to donate 60 million AstraZeneca vaccines and 20 million Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen vaccines to foreign countries.

The U.S. is also reportedly negotiating with Moderna to purchase its vaccines to provide them to countries around the world. The discussions may lead to a similar number of doses purchased as a deal revealed Wednesday with Pfizer, CNBC reported. Once the agreement is made, additional 500 million doses will be donated worldwide.

The U.S.’s decision to donate 500 million doses of vaccines came under the growing criticism of the international community that the country is focused so much on the vaccination of its own citizens, disregarding other countries’ circumstances. Sixty-four percent of all adults in the U.S. have received the first dose, and the country’s excess vaccines past expiration dates must be discarded.


Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com