U.S. Vaccine Hoarding Is Alienating the World
By insisting on inoculating all Americans before releasing doses for other countries, the Biden administration is undermining its claim to global leadership.
China has shipped millions of doses to Africa and elsewhere.
Photographer: Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images
Those Americans who cheered President Joe Biden’s announcement this week that the U.S. would have enough vaccines to inoculate every citizen by the end of July might want to note the cold silence with which the rest of the world greeted the news. Biden’s triumphalism was more than a little grating, considering that the U.S., alongside most other rich countries, has essentially chosen to corner the market on shots that are desperately needed elsewhere.
Just this Monday, the Mexican president asked Biden to share some of the U.S. vaccine supply, promising to return the favor when Mexico, which has the world’s third-highest Covid-19 death toll, receives its contracted deliveries a few months from now. When asked if Biden would grant the request, the White House press secretary replied with a flat no.