News

The Biden administration is preparing to invest billions of dollars to expand the country’s Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity in the second half of 2022, according to the New York Times, in a move that comes at a time when the U.S. and other wealthy nations face continued criticism for their failure to resolve global vaccine inequity.

US President Joe Biden with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer tours Covid-19 vaccine freezers at a … [+] Pfizer manufacturing site in Portage, Michigan.

AFP via Getty Images Key Facts In an interview with the New York Times, two top aides of President Biden—vaccine distribution coordinator Dr. David Kessler and Covid response coordinator Jeff Zients—said that the White House expects to expand Covid-19 vaccine production to hit at least one billion doses per year starting in 2022.

The administration expects the investment to expand the U.S.’s ability to contend with emerging Covid-19 variants while also preparing it for any future pandemics, according to the report.

The expanded manufacturing plan will cost several billion dollars according to Kessler’s estimates and money for it has already been earmarked in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

The White House will reportedly use a public-private partnership model to help expand vaccine manufacturing and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) plans to issue a “request for information” from companies that have experience manufacturing mRNA vaccines.

While noting that the plan will help expand the global supply of vaccines, Kessler said that the White House effort will be primarily aimed at building “U.S. domestic capacity.”

Big Number 14%. That’s the percentage of the 1.8 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines—promised by the G7 and Europe to poorer nations—which have been delivered so far, according to a report published last month by the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

Key Background Last month, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for $8 billion in funds from G20 nations and other donors to help ensure a more equitable rollout of vaccines across the world. Guterres’s appeal came after the WHO outlined its new global vaccination strategy to ensure that 40% of people in all countries are vaccinated by the end of this year and 70% by mid-2022. The WHO also noted that by the end of September 75% of all manufactured Covid-19 vaccines been administered by high and upper-middle-income countries. In that time frame, less than half a percent of doses had gone to low-income countries.