Conflict grows between US and allies over vaccine supply

The Associated Press ^ | March 12th, 2021 | By ZEKE MILLER, RAF CASERT, and SAMUEL PETREQUIN

[Mariner]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is stockpiling tens of millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine whose authorization in the U.S. remains uncertain, frustrating U.S. allies who say those doses should be used now to save lives overseas.

The standoff is part of a growing global debate over who should have access to hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine that pharmaceutical companies are churning out in the U.S. Besides generating ill will, Biden’s insistence on an excess supply for America is potentially creating new openings for geopolitical rivals Russia and China.

A two-dose vaccine from AstraZeneca has received emergency clearance from the European Union and World Health Organization but not from the U.S. Now America’s partners are prodding Biden to release his supply, noting that the administration has lined up enough doses of three already-authorized vaccines to cover every American adult by the end of May and the entire U.S. population by the end of July.

AstraZeneca says that the U.S.-produced vaccines are “owned” by the U.S. government and that sending them overseas would require White House approval.

“We understand other governments may have reached out to the U.S. government about donation of AstraZeneca doses, and we’ve asked the U.S. government to give thoughtful consideration to these requests,” Gonzalo Viña, a spokesman for AstraZeneca, said in a statement.

Even though the 27-nation European Union is eager to relaunch a more fruitful trans-Atlantic relationship after the bruising Trump presidency, the vaccine issue is proving to be a thorny topic, with some in Europe seeing it as a continuation of former President Donald Trump’s “America First” focus.

EU member states’ ambassadors discussed the challenge this week. The German government said on Friday it was in contact with U.S. officials about vaccine supplies but stressed that the European Commission has the lead ...

[Mariner]

Operation Warp Speed. A gift.

[Nifster]

Since the US govt is paying for it they can pound sand

[TonyinLA]

Where’s the “Women, children and POC hardest hit” portion of this article?

If you want more vaccine, make it. Or maybe invent it. Stop trying to appropriate American culture. Am I doing this right?

[Grampa Dave]

Wait until California does this on Monday, March 15!

Starting Monday, March 15, vaccine eligibility massively expands in California to include an additional 4.4 million people. That’s because this next phase of COVID-19 vaccine distribution allows for people with serious underlying health conditions to get a shot.

That applies to you if you’re 16 to 64 years old with one of the following conditions:

Cancer
Chronic kidney disease, stage 4 or above
Chronic pulmonary disease
Down syndrome
Immunocompromised state from organ transplant
Pregnancy
Sickle cell disease
Heart conditions (heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies; excludes hypertension)
Severe obesity
Type 2 diabetes mellitus
Other developmental or high-risk disabilities that put an individual at especially high risk

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) —

So how are the free standing vaccine clinics going to determine any of the above medical conditions?

[RetiredScientist]

These countries should be thankful for what we provide. If they don’t like it, they can buy their own.

[Seaplaner]

Interesting, a few look pretty easy but howzya gonna know if, for example, if someone is early stage pregnant?

I also wonder why they would exclude hypertension, when it's been a widely advertised risk factor all along.

[HotHunt]

They can have my dose. I’m taking a pass.

[silverleaf]

Growing number of countries won’t use the AZ due to growing incidences of clotting reaction

I say get rid of it

[buwaya]

They already are. The AstraZeneca vaccine in question is a British design not used in the US. Europe as a whole has more or less standardized on it and is making most of it. They would like more of it faster though.

The US has already purchased more vaccine than it needs between Pfizer, Moderna and J&J. I dont know why the US govt ordered 400 million doses of AstraZeneca nor why it is sitting on the stuff already delivered. My first guess was it was to be foreign aid to the Third World or something like that. But who knows.

What I gather from the Euros is that they want to buy up the US stock of AstraZeneca to speed up their own vaccination.

[silverleaf]

Obesity is one of the most serious risk factors almost 2/3 of Americans are obese....so they should tackle this population fast, esp in those “ underserved communities’

[Meatspace]

Americans First.

We paid for the vaccine development.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

If you want more vaccine, make it. Or maybe invent it. Stop trying to appropriate American culture.

The Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine was developed by Oxford University in the UK, and Astra Zeneca is also a British firm, so it's not actually American culture at work here. But it's true that the US bought these vaccine doses and has no obligation to simply let other nations have them while its own citizens need vaccines.

[BenLurkin]

European Union?

NOT America’s “allies.”

Not even close.

[DoughtyOne]

I love it when Leftists upset other Leftists.

All of a sudden, paradise lost...

[Rurudyne]

Yep. Me too. No new wave mutagens or fruit of abortions (even if only to grow the engineered materials in) for this guy.

[colorado tanker]

The EU bureaucracy is effing up the vaccinations, not surprisingly. Looks like they want to blame the US for their screw ups.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I dont know why the US govt ordered 400 million doses of AstraZeneca nor why it is sitting on the stuff already delivered.

The FDA probably hasn't approved it for use here. There are shortages of vaccine in CA, as Newsom has decreed that low-income communities must be given 40% of all of the state's vaccines, so there's certainly an immediate need for the Astra Zeneca doses.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

"I dont know why the US govt ordered 400 million doses of AstraZeneca nor why it is sitting on the stuff already delivered."

As part of Operation Warp Speed, President Trump agreed to buy up a ton of vaccine doses from the top 5 developers before they had a product ready based on early Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trial data. This is because the normal process where you go all the way through Phase 3 trials and approvals before you begin to retool you factories to produce the new vaccine delays things by several months or possibly over a year. Companies normally wouldn't invest all the capital into mass manufacturing because it's too high risk (~90% of new medicines fail Phase 3 clinical trials).

President Trump's brilliant move was to agree to buy up a large number of doses regardless of the Phase 3 trial results, so the companies would retool the factories and get to work mass producing doses so anyone who got authorizations was ready to ship actual product. That's why we had vaccines in December 2020 instead of December 2021 or later. With AstraZeneca's vaccine, the trial data had major problems and now some countries are seeing problems with it. The US hasn't authorized its use so far.

So we have the doses we've bought, but we aren't handing them out to Americans because despite what the anti-vaccine folks on the left and the right claim, and despite what the Democrats were claiming back in November and December, President Trump didn't rush anything and he didn't force anyone to authorize or approve anything that wasn't safe. As President Trump stated in December: the vaccines available in the US have passed the "gold standard of safety" testing. AstraZeneca/Oxford's vaccine has not.

[buwaya]

At the moment CA seems to be sitting on over 4 million doses of vaccine. Thats about 10 days worth at the rate they are vaccinating.

[Eleutheria5]

Aren’t they supposed to just show up at the border, storm it, and grab all the vaccines in the area and inject them on themselves with wild abandon? Get with the program, Europe. And don’t tell me you have no contiguous border with the US. What about via Alaska. Huh? Huh? Get your dog team together, hitch them up to a sled, and head North.