US to Distribute 80 Million Vaccine Doses Globally, on Basis of Need  

JOHANNESBURG - The United States announced this week that it will share an additional 20 million coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries, in addition to the 60 million it has already committed. The unanswered question: where will the vaccines go?

U.S. State Department Coordinator for Global COVID Response Gayle Smith sidestepped that issue Wednesday during a rapid-fire teleconference, despite repeated, urgent inquires from journalists in the Caribbean, India, Brazil, Africa, East Asia, and the European Union.  However, Smith emphasized the U.S. is working closely with the global COVAX facility to determine where the vaccines are needed most, and how they can be most equitably distributed.     “We have not made the decisions on allocations yet,” she said, repeatedly. “We'll have that information for you sometime in the near term. What we are doing is looking at every region in the world and we are well aware of the extremely low vaccine coverage on the African continent.”