Carmen Paun of Politico –
There’s no doubt Joe Biden’s election was met with relief from global health officials in Geneva and elsewhere, given his pledges to rejoin the World Health Organization on the first day of his presidency and embrace international efforts to fight the pandemic. But Pfizer/BioNTech’s announcement of the promising results for their vaccine candidate makes questions about global access urgent.
The most pressing question: How does Biden balance the political imperative to quickly vaccinate Americans while also ensuring equitable global vaccine distribution?
The first coronavirus shot could be authorized within weeks — while Donald Trump is still in the White House. Trump spurned COVAX, the global plan to equitably distribute vaccines around the world, partly because of its ties to the WHO. Biden hasn’t specifically said whether he would join COVAX or detailed other plans to join global distribution.
