By Jessica Easthope
Building vital public trust in the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine, that’s President Joe Biden’s goal. How he’s planning to achieve it – buying and donating 500 million vaccines to low and lower-income countries across the globe.
“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” said President Biden.
President Biden made the announcement, Wednesday, in a breakaway virtual coronavirus summit with other world leaders who have been gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.
The President is also calling on countries around the world to ramp up their own vaccine manufacturing and donations.
“We’re working with partner nations to increase their own capacity and capability to produce and manufacture safe and highly effective vaccines in their own countries,” President Biden said.
This announcement brings the total number of vaccine doses the United States has shared to 1.1 billion. President Biden says he’s after true global health security for all and believes the only way to defeat COVID-19 is together.
“We’re going to lead with the power of our example, but the only way to get this done is for everyone, everywhere, all of us to step up,” he said.
More than 4.5 million people around the world have died from COVID-19 so far.
President Biden wants 70 percent of the global population to be vaccinated within a year.