American Foreign Minister: We Will Not Use the COVID-19 Vaccine for Political Purposes

UMMATIMES - Secretary of State Antony Blinken ensures that America will not use the COVID-19 vaccine for political purposes. This follows America's plan to share the COVID-19 vaccine with other countries. America itself is said to have a vaccine surplus of up to millions of doses that can be distributed to other countries through various schemes.

"This is about saving lives (not political interests. We help our colleagues with great respect," said Antony Blinken, quoted from CNN, Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

To smooth the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine from America to other countries, Blinken said the Joe Biden administration had recruited a special coordinator for that, Gayle Smith. Gayle Smith, said Blinken, will be responsible for boosting the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine from America to other countries so that existing vaccine supplies are not wasted.

Previously, Al Jazeera reported that America has a surplus of the COVID-19 vaccine with a total of approximately 600 million doses. This was due to incessant orders from various producers during the pandemic at its peak last year. The US has reportedly ordered 1.2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine while it has a population of only 328 million.

Two weeks ago, the Mexican government reported that they had communicated with the US about how to obtain a surplus of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the term used by the Mexican government is "borrowed a vaccine" which has led to speculation of a political trade-off that America will accept.