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U.S. to donate 500 mil Pfizer vaccines to more than 90 countries

40 Comments
By Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal

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© Thomson Reuters 2021.

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40 Comments
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So much for China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy”

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The US doesn't need all those extra vaccines anymore. And the remaining unvaccinated Americans are reluctant or taking their sweet time to take it

The faster other countries' economies recover, the faster they can afford to buy American products again

And when given the choice, more people in the world tend to trust the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, than the Chinese and Russian vaccines, due to more scrutiny and more information being open

So it makes sense for the US to do this

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Just more government spending. If you agree with it fine; but just breaking out in praise for a politician to spend more of your money is pretty simple."

As one of those American taxpayers, I'd much rather my taxes be spent on this than on a useless wall a seven-year old can breach.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

500M for 90 countries

Wow,Good Business Idea.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This isn't just about the US being nice.

It is about stopping covid world-wide. Humans travel. If we don't get the virus under control ASAP, there will be hundreds to thousands of variants. That's bad for the entire world, including the USA, Europe, China, and Japan.

The US is over their "hump". People interested in being vaccinated have been already, so being helpful to the rest of the world is politically much easier.

China has been donating vaccines to places for a long time. Good on them for doing what they can, for longer.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Every country with the brainpower and money to do so needs to create and maintain an infrastructure to analyze new contagions, to develop, test, and approve treatments and vaccines, and then be prepared to mass produce and distribute the necessary medicines.

i’m from the Cold War era. It’s these same countries that allocated significant resources to some very imaginative pathogen research.

This present day generation will soon discover just how robust that activity remains.

Meet the new century. Same as the old one.

Class dismissed.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

BlacklabelToday  05:24 pm JST

So how much does 500 million doses cost, where is the money coming from (infrastructure?) and what is expected in return?

No, really.... what is expected in return?

This is world first and not Trump first. But to be fair Trump would have donated 500M doses of Mr. Clean, so that in fact would be cheaper than real medicine. Remember that viruses don't care about Trump walls. They don't even need shovels. You can't put them in cages unlike Trump with little children

1 ( +4 / -3 )

500 Mil.!! YES, and thank you for being the LIGHTENING ROD America.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Absolutely brilliant ! Thank you USA ! China started it America will end it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The 21st century world has seen what a pandemic looks like, and now needs to respond appropriately.

Every country with the brainpower and money to do so needs to create and maintain an infrastructure to analyze new contagions, to develop, test, and approve treatments and vaccines, and then be prepared to mass produce and distribute the necessary medicines.

Being willing to purchase medicines from other countries is great, but it means that one's own people have to wait until the medicines become available.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This is the America that I love.

A few thoughts......

500 million doses is a lot, but on the other hand, it is not nearly enough. The world needs billions of doses, in a hurry. If everyone were to get the two-dose vaccines, that would require almost 16 billion doses (2 times 8 billion). Ideally, the drug companies and the USA will keep ramping up production, until the job gets done.

The next area to ramp up production would be Europe, I think, once they get themselves on a sure footing.

China has the capacity to produce a lot of vaccines, but they need to abandon the domestically produced shots that work less than half the time, and switch over to the shots that work 95% of the time, or invent something just as good.

Russia has become something of a Third World country, and is unlikely to invent a good vaccine. If they did convert over to one of the good vaccines, they would have a difficult time making it in large numbers.

When India finally is able to make enough vaccines for themselves, they might start making doses for export.

If Brazil had a competent government, they could help control this pandemic, but right now that is just wishful thinking.

I don't know what happened to Japan during this pandemic. They are a highly industrialized country, with a very educated work force, but so far have relied on luck to keep the virus under control. What happened in India could have happened in Japan. Japan should be one of the leaders in the fight against the pandemic, and it is disappointing that it is not.

Seems to me that Singapore and/or South Korea could have done more to become vaccine producers and exporters.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Now, the US doing it, I understand. They have nearly 70% of the population vaccinated, and this week vaccinations are in a steep decline. Japan giving it away, while helping others is always admirable, on the other hand, makes no sense since only 3% or so of the population has been vaxxed so far.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 countries, while calling on the world's democracies to do their part to help end the deadly pandemic, the White House said.

biden is buying 500 million doses of vaccine? No, the taxpayers are. Sorry Joe - you didn’t build that. Trump and the American people did.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

It's an old column, but with Republicans still around, it's evergreen.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to-you-that-you-should_b_59519811e4b0f078efd98440

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Joe does good. He’s happy with an ice cream and the glow of human kindness.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

In a worldwide economy, you also get money back from foreign countries when you invest in them.

Trump didn't understand that.

He understands it. Both Russia and trump understands. The problem was the only people getting something back was the Russians and his family.

ByeDon has been showing real leadership in only six months in office. He is hoping to improve the reputation of the US that was destroyed over the last four years and in particular the last 18 months.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

meant F-16

1 ( +1 / -0 )

its a legitimate question unlike your wall nonsense.

No really smart in diplomacy, right ?

Next time you want to sell a bunch of F-19, what do remind to the foreign president ?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

So how much does 500 million doses cost, where is the money coming from (infrastructure?) and what is expected in return?

No, really.... what is expected in return?

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Seems the usual suspects don’t like the US winning. I’m not American but I can cheer for them. Odd.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Just more government spending. If you agree with it fine; but just breaking out in praise for a politician to spend more of your money is pretty simple.

Spending money to help people is good in my books.

You spent a lot of time telling us how Biden was going to be a warmonger. Delivery on vaccines that will go to waste is probably cheaper than bombs. Care to clarify that?

4 ( +9 / -5 )

And good on Pfizer, too. Drug companies are in a tough spot: they must spend huge capital to invest in drug research to produce medicines which may or may not turn out profitable. They might spend millions of dollars to develop a medicine life-saving for only a few dozen people or for like something like this. Government needs to socialize these companies to support them when they need it and take from them when required.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

This is the USA we like !

Just more government spending. If you agree with it fine; but just breaking out in praise for a politician to spend more of your money is pretty simple.

In a worldwide economy, you also get money back from foreign countries when you invest in them.

Trump didn't understand that.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

I can’t think of any negatives about this.

I’m sure someone will chime in.

You called it.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Just more government spending. If you agree with it fine; but just breaking out in praise for a politician to spend more of your money is pretty simple.

-9 ( +6 / -15 )

I can’t think of any negatives about this.

I’m sure someone will chime in.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

Well done Biden. This is a good example of the human side of politics.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

A good move, not just to save lives, but also to reduce the speed at which new mutations emerge.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

This is the real Operation Warp Speed. He's not just getting Americans vaccinated, He's vaccinating the world!

Hooray for Biden's Operation Warp Speed!

3 ( +16 / -13 )

Amazing. So proud of Biden. Wonderful President!

6 ( +17 / -11 )

America is always doing positive things for the world. Good on them!

13 ( +18 / -5 )

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