Ahead of the G-7 Summit in Britain, US President Joe Biden formally announced his administration is donating 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine for 92 low- and middle-income countries.
These half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line. A number of 200 million doses would be delivered by the end of this year and 300 million in the first half of 2022. Biden said it in remarks after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence. Ahead of the meeting, Prime Minister Johnson pledged the UK would donate more than 100 million vaccines to poorer countries in the next year.
US President Joe Biden, said, ''Many of these doses are shipping to countries around the world as we speak, and today we're taking a major step that will supercharge the global fight against this pandemic. At my direction, the United States will purchase an additional half billion doses from Pfizer, that we'll donate nearly one hundred low and lower middle-income countries. They will be the beneficiaries."