U.S. Vowed to Help Prevent New Variants by Closing Global Vaccine Gap, But Plan’s Funding Is Stalled

As the Biden administration faces increased pressure to address global vaccine inequity, USAID administrator Samantha Power announced a plan Monday for the United States to spend an additional $400 million to help increase vaccine access internationally. The move came days after Vanity Fair revealed a $2.5 billion plan to thwart Omicron-like variants has been stalled inside the Biden administration. We speak with reporter Katherine Eban, who broke the story, and says vaccines are piling up in countries that lack the health infrastructure to distribute them quickly. The problem is shifting from not enough doses to not enough support on the ground to administer doses." She says the Biden administration has good-faith" goals to reduce vaccine inequity, but they have not gone and asked Congress for money in part because they're facing a narrow Senate majority."