The Biden administration is turbocharging its effort to boost inoculations in low- and middle-income countries to prevent new, more-transmissible variants from emerging — an effort that would also protect Americans at home, three senior administration officials working on the effort tell POLITICO’s Erin Banco
There’s a problem: The administration is running out of money to support the global vaccination push, and negotiations with Congress on securing new funding have stalled.
Without additional cash, the Biden administration could fall behind in its 2022 Covid-19 goal of getting shots into arms. That includes its work with COVAX, the global vaccine facility, and local governments to boost inoculations in the 30 countries with vaccination rates below 10 percent, the officials said.
The backdrop: The new, urgent approach to inoculating the world comes after the administration spent months in the spring and summer of 2021 focusing on direct donations to nations instead of distributing doses through COVAX — a move that initially confused global vaccination allocation and delayed getting shots into arms, according to two of the senior administration officials working on the federal government’s effort. Those officials said senior health officials had initially urged the White House and National Security Council to donate 100 percent of its doses through COVAX.
The cash shortage could have big implications for global vaccination, considering how much COVAX relies on the U.S. for vaccines and financial support.
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