Amid criticism of vaccine hoarding, Biden administrator plots $ 2.7 billion manufacturing surge

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It didn’t take long for the Biden administration to respond to criticism that the United States was not doing enough to alleviate the global COVID-19 vaccination deficit.

White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients revealed on Thursday that the government has earmarked $ 2.7 billion to bolster vaccine manufacturing.

Zients did not discuss details of the plan, such as which companies would receive the aid, but said the funds would increase production of key supplies to produce the snaps. Some of those materials include bioreactor bags, tubes, lipids, vials, needles and syringes, Bloomberg and The New York Times report, citing officials familiar with the plan.

This new investment will further expand domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, helping the United States deliver on its commitment to be the vaccine arsenal for the world and preparing America for future immunization efforts, Zients told reporters.

Investing in the supply chain will also create thousands of well-paying American jobs, Zients added. The Department of Health and Human Services is close to finalizing contracts for the work, a White House official told The New York Times.

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The news comes about a week after the publication of a nonprofit PrEP4All report titled Playing Fiddle While the World Burns, ‘which found that only $ 145 million of the $ 16 billion set aside by the US government to bolster COVID vaccine production had been spent. The report called the vaccine production capacity woefully insufficient. to meet global demand.

Criticism escalated when the administration recommended a September rollout for booster doses, joining several other developed countries who followed suit. The World Health Organization’s call for a moratorium on booster injections to boost supplies to needy countries has been largely ignored.

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The United States has donated 130 million doses of the vaccine to other countries, Zients said. Biden has pledged to donate more than 600 million doses by mid-2022. Experts say 11 billion doses are needed to tame the virus around the world.

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