Love thy neighbor
U.S. will loan 4M vaccine doses to Canada, Mexico
Vaccine rollout in the United States is finally ramping up, and while it may be easy to get stuck in our own bubble, we have to remember the pandemic is still here and impacting the entire globe.
The U.S. will be lending about 4 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Canada and Mexico, White House coronavirus-response coordinator Jeff Zients said in a Friday news briefing — a great move to help our neighbors when they need it most.
The deal works perfectly. The AstraZeneca vaccine hasn’t been authorized for use here yet, and while we await clinical trial results, the supply of doses we have on deck can head over to Canada and Mexico, which have already authorized the vaccine.
“To be clear, this loan will not reduce the available supply of vaccines to America,” said Zients. “No American will be without a vaccine because of this action.”
When the time arrives that we need those doses back, we will get fresh ones via AstraZeneca, according to Zients.
Other health experts, such as Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins, have also said sharing vaccines is the way to go.
“The U.S. does need to really be a key player in getting vaccines to all countries around the world, this is a global pandemic,” said Moss in a Friday news conference.
Unfortunately during this pandemic, we have seen some nasty selfishness. People have fought over the last roll of toilet paper, refused to wear a mask out in public and hosted large gatherings against public health guidance.
Now that we have entered into the era of vaccines, it’s time to turn that around and remind the world of America’s great power to help other nations.
Soon, we will even have the capacity to go beyond the AstraZeneca doses and share vaccines that are authorized in the states.
Dr. Ashish Jha, health expert and dean of the Brown University School of
Public Health, has said by late May, vaccine supply is likely to outpace demand. By that time, he said, “I think we should start giving some away.”
Large coronavirus outbreaks and high death tolls are still taking place in many areas of the world. Some countries still have not even been able to vaccinate people yet.
“There’s no reason we should not be giving away a lot of vaccines to people around the world,” said Jha, and I agree.
He added, “Pandemics don’t end when one country gets vaccinated. … We will continue to suffer and face challenges as a country if the rest of the world continues to have high levels of infection.”
Jha makes an excellent point. While we have to focus on getting Americans vaccinated now, it’s vital to extend our hand to other nations later on when we have plenty of supply.
We have learned from this pandemic that one country’s problem is every country’s problem, and vaccination is no different. The entire world desperately needs one precious resource — let’s share it.