Thread by @NBCNews

President Biden pledged $4B to a program distributing Covid-19 vaccines between rich countries and the developing world.
But officials and experts suggest the lumpsum is not enough to address the dire state of vaccine inequality.
#NBCNewsThreads (1/7) nbcnews.to/2ZSsgKj

Known as COVAX, the program has struggled not because of a lack of money but a lack of supply. So far the limited doses that are being made have mostly gone to the U.S. and other rich countries.

While an improvement, the pledge "doesn't go far enough," an expert said. (2/7)

Amid rising vaccine nationalism, the project aims to supply doses to 20% of people in 92 less-developed countries.

9 months after the partnership was formed, that dream has yet to materialize and over 100 of the world's poorest countries have not given a single shot. (3/7)

As it stands, parts of Africa, South America and Asia will not achieve widespread immunization until 2023 at the earliest, a recent report found.

"We need to reframe this entire discussion. What will help Americans the most is not vaccinating every American first." (4/7)

In a pandemic that's killed 2.5M people, not vaccinating people across the globe promptly will leave them vulnerable.

"It is quite bizarre for a young person in one part of the world to be getting the vaccine while a front-line health worker in Africa is still waiting." (5/7)

Both the moral case and the self-interested case for global vaccination were behind Biden's $4B pledge.

"We think that it is vital to take a role in beating the pandemic globally, and to really put U.S. leadership out there to do this," an administration official said. (6/7)

One solution is to waive intellectual property rights so vaccines can be produced globally, but this has been resisted by wealthy nations and large pharma companies.

"If there are no vaccines to buy, money is irrelevant," the WHO said. nbcnews.com/news/world/cov… (7/7)