The US Biden administration is set to buy hundreds of millions more doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in order to donate to the rest of the world. According to two sources close to the deal, Forbes was informed how this is part of the US’ strategy to increase efforts to share the vaccine with the rest of the global population. 500 million doses are expected to be purchased, but the terms of the deal are not yet finalised.
An announcement of the purchase is due early next week and is also timed to coincide exactly with the UN General Assembly meeting. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients declined any comments on the deal but did state that vaccine access will be a big topic of conversation at the gathering this upcoming week.
Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose also spoke about the deal, saying that Pfizer is ‘firmly committed to doing all we can to ensure equitable and affordable access to our COVID-19 vaccines for people around the world.’ So far, around 5.82 billion doses have been administered around the globe, but less than 2% of the population living in low income countries received even one dose.
#MaltaDaily