In all, the U.S. government has confirmed deals to buy 1.1 billion doses of a half-dozen vaccines in various stages of development, according to the Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University. The United States is expected to end up with far more doses than what is needed to vaccinate every American.
Other wealthy countries have bought an additional 2.9 billion doses in bilateral deals with drugmakers.
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Although there has never been such global demand for the same few drugs at the same time, pandemic nationalism is an old phenomenon.
A decade ago, during the swine flu outbreak that killed more than a quarter of a million people worldwide, the United States and other wealthy countries snatched up nearly all the available vaccine. They agreed to share a limited amount with poorer countries only after ensuring they had enough to meet their own needs.
The race to vaccinate the world against a once-in-a-century pandemic has begun in an all-too-familiar way: Every country for itself. Rich nations have gobbled up nearly all the global supply of the two leading Covid-19 vaccines through the end of 2021, leaving many middle-income countries to turn to unproven drugs developed by China and Russia while poorer states face long waits for their first doses.
JEWEL SAMAD/TNS
A health worker collects a swab sample for the Covid-19 testing at a makeshift testing booth in New Delhi, as India surged past 10 million cases. Richer countries will be able to vaccinate . their whole populations before vulnerable groups in many developing countries get covered, said Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.