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Summary
- The US will prioritize Canada, Mexico when it starts vaccine exports
- The US has ordered millions of doses in new orders to cover all by Independence Day.
- Mexico has made a second request to the US this week to share its covid vaccines.
President Joe Biden’s next move against the pandemic is to take the coronavirus fight to neighboring Canada and Mexico, which will be key battlegrounds for the US to remove the virus threat forever.
Both the countries have been struggling to keep up the pace in vaccination amid various delays.
The Biden administration is expected to boost US vaccine exports to these two neighbors, whose health security is key to winning its own battle against the virus.
According to officials who are familiar in the matter, told the media that Canada and Mexico are on the top of President Biden’s list of countries for US vaccine exports.
The US government has stepped up vaccinations in the country and has ordered millions of doses in new orders to cover the entire population by July 4, 2021, which is American Independence Day.
President Biden has so far spurned requests from other countries to share covid vaccines as his administration races against time to subdue the virus that has taken the highest number of lives in the US compared to other affected countries, including China where it was first reported.
Meanwhile, Mexico has made a second request to the US this week to share its covid vaccines as the country faces a difficult challenge to procure the life-saving drug. The European drug regulators said last week that they may consider limiting exports because of the deteriorating situation in the bloc.
Pic Credit: Pixabay.
Canada, Mexico To Be Priority For Vaccine Exports
Canada, which is also facing mounting challenges in drug distribution, especially due to previous delays in supplies from Europe, has started looking out for other countries to source the vaccines.
The Justine Trudeau government has approved three covid drugs so far: Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, and John & Johnson, which is the latest one to get the green light.
President Biden has been in touch with various world leaders to take stock of the covid situation.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had said early this month that the North American countries will be a priority when the US starts exporting covid vaccines. But for now, the priority is the American citizens, she added.
Ms. Psaki also said that the administration has received requests for vaccines from various countries.
The US’ overall vaccine orders would be enough to cover 500 million people. In addition to Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J drugs like Canada, it has also placed orders from AstraZeneca. Europe has recently suspended shots of AstraZeneca after reports of blood-clogging during vaccinations surfaced.
