Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Vaccine Donations To Fall Short Of 55M June Target; No AstraZeneca Shots
The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration To Miss June Target For Some Covid-19 Vaccine Donations
The White House on Monday detailed plans to allocate 55 million Covid-19 vaccine doses it is donating overseas, saying the shipments would likely take longer than President Biden’s initial target of sending them out by the end of June. White House officials said the delays were related to logistical challenges in countries set to receive the vaccines. In addition, the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine, which was supposed to be among those donated, hasn’t been approved for shipment, leading the administration to substitute vaccines from other manufacturers. (Siddiqui, 6/21)
Politico: Biden Drops AstraZeneca Vaccine From Latest Donation
The Biden administration on Monday announced further plans for sharing coronavirus vaccines with the world, but it will no longer immediately send doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine following problems at a production plant. The administration detailed plans for sharing 55 million doses with other countries, which will come entirely from the U.S. supply of three vaccines the FDA has cleared for emergency use, according to an administration official. Earlier this month, the administration said the first 25 million doses it would donate abroad also would come from the U.S. supply of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. (Paun, 6/21)
Axios: U.S. Announces Destinations For 55 Million More COVID Vaccine Doses
The Biden administration on Monday announced a list of countries that will receive the remaining 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that the U.S. has pledged to allocate by the end of this month. The White House had previously named the recipients of the first 25 million of the 80 million doses that the U.S. has pledged to export, as it took its first step toward becoming a global vaccine supplier. (Fernandez, 6/21)
In related news about COVAX —
AP: Vaccine Technology Transfer Center To Open In South Africa
The World Health Organization is in talks to create the first-ever technology transfer hub for coronavirus vaccines in South Africa, a move to boost supply to the continent that’s desperately in need of COVID-19 shots, the head of the U.N. agency announced. The new consortium will include drugmakers Biovac and Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. They will develop training facilities for other vaccine makers to make shots that use a genetic code of the spike protein, known as mRNA vaccines. (Meldrum and Cheng, 6/21)
Bloomberg: Will There Be Enough Vaccines? Covax Is Running Out
A string of nations across Africa, Asia and other regions have run out of Covid-19 vaccines or are on the brink of doing so, months after receiving first shipments from a global program meant to equitably distribute the lifesaving shots. When the supplies arrived in developing countries earlier this year through the Covax effort, they were seen as an important step in narrowing a glaring gap in global access. Today, many of those same countries are facing vaccine shortages and are unsure when they will receive donations from wealthy countries. (Paton and Gretler, 6/22)
