Allies eye US vaccine stockpile

WASHINGTON — 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 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 alreadyauthorized 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 “ownedî 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,”î Gonzalo Vioa, a spokesman for AstraZeneca, said.

Even though the 27-nation European Union is eager to relaunch a more fruitful trans-Atlantic relationship, 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”î focus.