WASHINGTON — A little more than half of the United States is fully vaccinated. Despite an abundance of COVID-19 vaccines, the country continues to hover around that number.
The United States now has more than enough COVID-19 vaccines to cover the unvaccinated and still have millions of doses left over.
At the same time, only around 34% of the world has gotten the shot. The Biden administration has already begun donating doses internationally. Many countries have little to no access to COVID-19 vaccines.
A viewer emailed us and asked: Are other nations donating COVID-19 vaccines to underprivileged countries? Or is the U.S. the only one supporting the world?
QUESTION:
Is the U.S. the only country donating COVID-19 vaccines?
OUR SOURCES:
- The dataset of COVID19 vaccine donations from COVAX, the worldwide initiative for distributing vaccines.
- Adam Wexler, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit that is monitoring the US global vaccine donations.
ANSWER:
No, dozens of other countries are donating COVID-19 vaccines too.
WHAT WE FOUND:
“The U.S. is by far the largest donor having pledged more than 1.1 billion doses to be delivered before 2023,” Wexler said. “So far, 170 million of those doses have been shipped.”
But, the U.S. is not the only donor of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.
“The largest donors include Germany, France, the UK, and China,” Wexler said.
“Those countries have pledged to provide between 100 and 120 million doses. Nowhere near on the scale of the U.S.”
So, the U.S. is not the only donor of COVID-19 vaccines to the world. It’s just the largest so far.
According to Adam Wexler, the United States is shipping all three types of vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. So far, more than 100 countries have received U.S. COVID-19 vaccines.
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