On Monday, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. will donate 20 million unused Pfizer, Modena, Johnson & Johnson, and the new AstraZeneca vaccines overseas, totaling 80 million doses by the end of June.
The additional 60 million vaccines will be AstraZeneca. They have yet to be authorized by the FDA to be distributed and used in the U.S. but are still being produced domestically.
4 million doses of AstraZeneca were sent to Canada and Mexico already, prior to Biden’s statement.
In his announcement, Biden said this was possible due to the amount of declining COVID-19 cases nationwide.
Biden said, “We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that’s raging globally is under control. No ocean’s wide enough, no wall is high enough to keep us safe.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has donated the most vaccines by any other country in the world “by five times.”
There is currently no information as to which countries will get the vaccines first.
India might be on the list as Vice President Kamala Harris recently spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ways to stop the spread.