Image of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine doses.CHRISTOF STACHE (AFP)
The United States will begin this Saturday the shipment of one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to Bolivia, as confirmed by sources from the White House to EL PAÍS on Thursday. The deliveries are in addition to the 200 million doses distributed by the world power to more than a hundred countries. Washington will make the donation to this nation of 11.6 million people through Covax, the global platform created to give equal access to immunization to the population of rich and poor countries.
Only 29.3% of the Bolivian population is fully vaccinated, which makes it one of the countries with the lowest inoculation rate in the region. “We share these doses not to obtain favors or to obtain concessions,” said White House sources, but because “it is morally right, right from a global public health perspective, and right for our collective safety and well-being.” The United States has purchased 1 billion Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for distribution during the year to low- and lower-middle-income countries, in order to fulfill the commitment made in the Global Alliance for Immunization and Vaccination (GAVI, for its acronym in English).
The Joe Biden government has also donated two billion vaccines through Covax, and at the last G7 summit, in the middle of the year, the US president announced the purchase of an additional 500 million doses to donate. Although the US, the largest donor so far, has pushed the bar on its delivery targets, COVAX has provided only 5% of the world’s administered vaccines, and recently announced that it will not meet its 2 billion target. by 2021.
While rich countries administer booster doses, more than 50 countries failed in September to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of 10% of their population being fully vaccinated. The United States already offers a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those 65 and older, people at high risk of serious illness and workers highly exposed to contracting the virus.
This Thursday a team of experts from the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) approved that Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can also be offered as a booster to vulnerable people, following the line of what is admitted by the drug’s regulatory agency, FDA . Both also gave the green light to the administration of a different brand of vaccine than the initial one in the booster doses.
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