The Trump administration assured this September 1st that it will not participate in the Covax mechanism, which would seek to distribute Covid-19 vaccines equitably in countries with fewer resources.
This was indicated by the White House spokesman, Jude Deere, during a press conference, in which he assured that the United States will not participate in the initiative because it is coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The United States will continue to work with our international partners to ensure that we defeat this virus, but we will not be limited by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,” Deere said.
The Covax mechanism aims to distribute 2 billion doses of the possible vaccine against Covid-19 equitably, among participating countries. Costa Rica, precisely, has initiated contact to participate.
This mechanism, however, has a limit: it can only deliver vaccines to a maximum of 20% of the population of each country, according to its website. Because of this, countries will have to manage other access options.
Direct purchase
The United States, however, chose to purchase all of its doses of the vaccine directly, through payment arrangements with the developing pharmaceutical companies. This country has reserved doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Moderna, among others.
The WHO tried to keep the United States within the Covax mechanism, to the point where it improved the conditions of this agreement for the rich countries that are part of it, according to international media.
However, the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union have chosen to reserve millions of doses of vaccines in development, despite warnings from the WHO that this could reduce availability.
Costa Rica, for its part, also announced that it has already initiated contact with three pharmaceutical companies with a vaccine in development: AstraZeneca (Sweden), Sinovac (China) and Pfizer (Germany).
