Key points The Biden administration has been reluctant to distribute surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries in need or to facilitate foreign manufacturing of vaccines. This approach has short-term political advantages, but it is dangerous. The administration’s hesitancy to assist other countries in fighting the pandemic is contributing to two problems: (1) a failure to vaccinate people outside the United States as quickly as possible increases the chances of the domestic vaccination effort being rendered ineffective or obsolete by a mutation and (2) Washington is being seen as selfishly isolationist in a time of immense need. The United States is still the best-suited country to lead a global vaccination effort and could capture a significant diplomatic windfall by doing so.