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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline MAY 14, 2021 | The Indian Eye 22

covid-19 Aid to indiA

Will india get some

vaccine doses from Us?

President Biden says 20 million doses, of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines,

would be sent in addition to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine

Our Bureau tle indication the U.S. strategy

Washington, DC of ensuring more-than-ample
supply at home will change any
he United States has an- time soon.
nounced it will send at The two-dose mRNA vac-
Tleast 20 million corona- cines have shown the highest
virus vaccine doses in June to efficacy rates of those cleared
countries struggling against the for use around the globe. They
pandemic, answering calls that are also the most challenging
the Biden administration isn’t to store and ship, and have
doing enough to help countries been bought up primarily by
that face dire shortages of vac- wealthier countries. They’ve
cines and other treatments. become the vaccines of choice
for Americans, because of their

President Biden said on availability and their perceived
superiority.
Monday that those 20 Pfizer’s shots have also been
cleared for people ages 12 to 15,
million doses, of Pfiz- making them critical to the do-
er-Biontech, Moderna mestic effort to vaccinate teens.
It may soon be authorized for
and Johnson and Johnson doses that haven’t been cleared said Monica Gandhi, a physi- even younger children, who

vaccines, would be in ad- for U.S. use. There are also tens cian and professor of medicine are at relatively low risk from
dition to 60 million doses of millions of J&J vaccines that at the University of California, Covid, reducing what’s avail-
may become available, likely as San Francisco, who authored a able for more defenseless pop-
of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, the American campaign winds letter with more than two doz- ulations abroad.

which the U.s. plans to down. en colleagues calling on the As of April 12, Moderna had
Across the U.S., there are U.S. to ship spare Moderna handed over 117 million doses.
donate once the vaccine more than 27 million unused doses to India. It’s producing 40 million to 50

is cleared for use by the Moderna Inc. doses and 35 Pfizer is already sending million doses a month, which
million from Pfizer Inc. and some shots manufactured in means that as of this week, it’s
Food and drug Adminis- BioNTech SE, according to the U.S. overseas. And there delivered about 157 million to
tration. it is not clear ex- data compiled by the Centers may be millions more unused 167 million. About 140 million
for Disease Control and Pre- doses from Johnson & Johnson of those doses have already
actly how long it will take vention. That’s led to calls by and AstraZeneca Plc available been shipped out to vaccine lo-

the F.d.A. to authorize As- prominent public health voic- to send out in the coming weeks cations and states, according to
es to pack America’s surplus or months; the exact date is un- the CDC.
traZeneca’s vaccine. in dry ice and ship it to places known. If another 10 million are on

like India, where the outbreak But with the Biden admin- order or in transit--about what
The Biden administration is still raging. istration rolling back pandemic ships each week--that leaves
has said that over the next “You’re seeing supply ex- guidelines on masking, in part just 7 million to 17 million
months it will send out approxi- ceed demand here and you just to get vaccine fence-sitters to doses that haven’t been sent
mately 60 million AstraZeneca know there are excess doses,’’ roll up their sleeves, there’s lit- Continued on next page... >>

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