May 17 (UPI) — The United States will send 20 million additional doses of American-made COVID-19 vaccines to other countries that have supply shortages, President Joe Biden announced on Monday.
Biden said millions of doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which were originally approved for U.S. distribution, will instead be sent abroad by June.
The move comes three weeks after the White House announced that 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — which has not yet been authorized in the United States — would be released to other countries over the next several months. Another 4 million AstraZeneca doses are to be shared with Mexico and Canada.
Monday’s decision brought the total number of U.S. doses now slated for use abroad to 80 million.
