U.S. will donate 10% of swine flu vaccine to developing countries

The United States will donate 10% of its supply of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza virus to developing countries that do not have the resources to procure it on their own, a White House spokesman said today. The U.S. has ordered 195 million doses of the vaccine, which means it will make nearly 20 million doses available to the World Health Organization for distribution.

Eight other countries--Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland--said they will make similar donations. Two vaccine manufacturers, Sanofi Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline, had previously said that they would donate a total of 150 million doses. Worldwide production of the vaccine is projected to be more than 2 billion doses, but experts had feared that most of those doses would go to the rich countries, which could afford to pay for them.

Those fears were eased last week when results from the first clinical trials of the vaccines showed that only one dose was required to stimulate effective immunity. That had the effect of doubling the available number of doses because experts had been assuming that two doses of vaccine would be required.

The WHO has not yet said how it will distribute the vaccine.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Comments

[Jack johnson]

That's 20 million fewer people in our country that will get a vaccination. Wonder what the percentage of deaths that will occur from the lack of 20 million doses.

I guess the poor and downtrodden in this country will die for the poor in another.

[reefcreature]

Who is going to pay for the 20 million doses? When is the United States going to quit giving away money we don't have.? Every handout we give to other countries, no matter had "humanitarian" it may be, is the equivalent of you or I getting a cash advance on your credit card at a high interest and giving the advance to the beggar on the corner. The U.S. government needs to take care of US interests and citizens first. Once we have surplus cash, then we can take care of the world.

[RonMc]

While I applaud our helping the citizens of other countries, I am upset that my Dad, a WWII vet, won't be able to get the swine flu shot until the flu season is over - because we don't have enough for all those younger than him. However, we will share our limited supplies with other nations. I understand that we have to ration the vaccine (because it is in short supply), but who decided that you are less worthy just because you are over the age of 65? Why isn't such an important decision subject to a national debate and referendum? If I gave someone this power, I sure wasn't aware of it at the time. I honestly don't know what I'd decide, because this is a tough issue - but it would be nice to think that my opinion counted.

[Debbie Fontaine]

Our government should make sure there is enough vaccine to go around at home before donating to other countries. If one of my loved ones died from this flu because there wasn't enough vaccine to go around and my government donated elsewhere first, I'd be pretty angry.

[Heather]

Can't we take care of our citizens first for a change? We will be donating the vaccine to another country that can not provide for it's citizens......Mexico....half of Arizona's vaccine's will go to undocuments aliens, isn't that enough?