US will not participate in international initiative to develop Covid-19 vaccine

The US government said overnight that it will not participate in a global initiative to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a vaccine for Covid-19 due to the World Health Organization’s involvement.

The Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (Covax) is a plan developed by the WHO, along with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in which 170 countries were in talks to participate.

White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said in a statement on Tuesday: “Under President Trump’s leadership, vaccine and therapeutic research, development, and trials have advanced at unprecedented speed to deliver groundbreaking, effective medicines driven by data and safety and not held back by government red tape.

“The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”

The refusal to participate follows President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the WHO and cut funding due to what he claimed was undue Chinese influence on the organisation.

Instead of joining global collaborative efforts to develop a vaccine, the Trump administration has opted to focus on Operation Warp Speed, a US plan to develop a vaccine and manufacture 300m doses by January 2021.