US: World Can Have AstraZeneca Stockpile

The White House says that with its "strong portfolio of vaccines" that have already received FDA clearance, it plans to share its stockpile of the AstraZeneca vaccine with the world. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the administration is looking at options for distributing AstraZeneca doses after federal safety reviews are completed, CNN reports. Officials say the US currently has about 10 million doses of the vaccine and 50 million more are expected to become available in May and June. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved in other countries, but it has yet to receive—or file for—emergency use authorization from the FDA.

With large quantities of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines available, and "given that AstraZeneca is not authorized for use in the United States, we do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against COVID over the next few months," Psaki said. The US has already shared 4 million AstraZeneca doses with Canada and Mexico as a loan. Federal authorities say the doses to be shared with other countries are undergoing an additional safety review because they were produced at the troubled Baltimore plant that accidentally ruined 15 million doses of the J&J vaccine, the AP reports. (More coronavirus vaccine stories.)