Joe Biden is set to announce today that the United States will be spending $4 billion on an effort to increase distribution of the coronavirus vaccine in poor and third-world countries, as reported by ABC.
Congress had approved spending the funds on an international vaccine distribution effort back in December; half of the money will go to an organization called Gavi, an international group that focuses specifically on vaccine distribution and is backed by the United Nations. The funding will cover Gavi’s operations throughout 2021 and 2022.
The move is raising questions about the Biden Administration’s priorities, as he has previously claimed that the United States is having trouble vaccinating its own population in a timely manner. Biden came under fire for lying during a CNN townhall when he falsely claimed that the United States “had no vaccine” when he took office, even though a vaccine was announced under President Donald Trump, and Biden even filmed himself receiving the vaccine on live television.
The decision also represents Biden’s determination to return to a more internationalist and globalist agenda in cooperating more closely with the U.N. President Trump had previously criticized the U.N.’s failure to address the crisis, and withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) after it was revealed that the WHO had close ties to the Chinese government and was actively covering up China’s mistakes in handling the initial outbreak. Biden has since announced that the United States will re-enter the WHO.