U.S. to donate 500 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to global supply
CBSN
Washington — The Biden administration is purchasing 500 million more doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to donate to low- and middle-income countries, which will bring the total number of shots committed by the U.S. for the global supply to 1.1 billion, the White House said.
The president is poised to announce the latest purchase during a virtual COVID summit he is convening Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The doses of Pfizer's vaccine will begin shipping out to countries in January, a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday.
The U.S. has so far committed to giving more than 600 million vaccine doses to other nations, a figure that includes the 500 million Pfizer shots bought by the Biden administration in June for low- and middle-income countries. Nearly 160 million of these vaccine doses have been shipped abroad thus far.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.