U.S. to Buy 500 Million Pfizer COVID-19 Shots to Donate to Developing Countries

The Biden administration announced that it plans to purchase an additional 500 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for donation to low-income nations.

The new doses bring the government’s total committed doses to developing countries to more than 1 billion, as the pandemic continues to rage in those countries fueled by the more contagious Delta variant.

The White House has come under fire for considering third vaccine doses for Americans when many populations worldwide remain largely unvaccinated. The administration is preparing to allow domestic distribution of booster doses as soon as this week, pending regulatory approval or authorization from the FDA.