The US government announced on Wednesday that it will buy another 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine against covid-19, which will further increase the supply of the United States, which had already acquired enough units to vaccinate its entire population. .
“Today, President (Joe) Biden, will order his government to get 100 million more doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” said one of the president’s advisers on the pandemic, Andy Slavitt, at a press conference from the White House on covid-19.
Biden planned to make the announcement formally during an afternoon meeting at the White House with the CEOs of the pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Merck.
The US president has predicted that, by the end of May, the United States will have enough doses to vaccinate all adults in the country, where almost 330 million people live, of which about 255 million are over 18 years of age.
Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine is one of three approved so far in the United States, had already pledged to deliver 100 million initial doses to the country before the end of June, and the new purchase by the Biden government brings to 200 million the units of that multinational that Washington has commissioned.
The White House has yet to negotiate with the drugmaker when it will be able to receive those vaccines, but it hopes to obtain them in the second half of this year, according to government sources.
“This order allows the president to plan for the future, for the end of the year,” said Slavitt.
The United States had already secured enough doses to vaccinate all adults in the country in February, when it closed an agreement with Pfizer and Moderna, manufacturers of the other two covid-19 vaccines approved in the country, to obtain 200 million doses. more for the end of July.
However, the White House has decided to reassign Johnson & Johnson to ensure a more than sufficient supply should Pfizer or Moderna run into manufacturing problems.
The accumulation of doses by the United States and other rich countries has raised concern among some experts, who warn that this may be having an impact on the inability of other countries with fewer resources to obtain sufficient vaccines in the short term, which may increase the risk of virus mutations.
In this regard, the White House responds that it has donated 2,000 million dollars to the COVAX platform for the development and equitable distribution of vaccines against covid-19, and that it has not ruled out donating its surplus once it has inoculated all its population.
The United States is the country most affected by the pandemic in the world in absolute terms, with more than 29 million infections and 527,000 deaths, and its vaccination plan is progressing at a good pace, with “more than two million doses” administered per day , according to Slavitt.