US to donate 500 million Pfizer doses, urge others to join in

A man receives a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-1

US President Joe Biden plans to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 countries, while calling on the world's democracies to do their part to help end the deadly pandemic, the White House said. The announcement of the vaccine donation - the largest ever by a single country - comes ahead of Biden's meeting with leaders of the other Group of Seven advanced economies - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - in Cornwall, England. ‘The goal of today's donation is to save lives and end the pandemic and will provide the foundation for additional actions to be announced in the coming days,’ the White House said. US drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech confirmed they will provide 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022, which the United States will then distribute to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union.