Secretary of State designee Tony Blinken says President-elect Joe Biden will bring the U.S. into the COVAX initiative, the global health effort from the World Health Organization and other groups to ensure that all countries have access to COVID-19 vaccines, reports Axios.
Blinken made the announcement Tuesday during a confirmation hearing, telling senators: "We believe strongly that we can ensure that every American gets the vaccine, but also help make sure that others around the world who want it have access to it.”
The COVAX mechanism, coordinated by WHO and Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance, to support poorer countries, is funded by donor countries, multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, and private charities. COVAX has secured deals for 2 billion vaccine doses to be deployed this year, PAHO officials said.
PAHO is the regional arm of the World Health Organization.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance last week warned that as many as 90 percent of the population in dozens of poorer countries will miss out on the COVID-19 vaccine next year.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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