美国和中国这两个国家都拒绝加入172个国家开发、制造和公平分配疫苗的努力新冠肺炎(新型冠状病毒肺炎)。
根据公共卫生专家的说法，这一决定破坏了全球在疫苗上的合作努力，因为它鼓励其他人首先保护自己，并使美国人面临无法获得另一个国家开发的成功疫苗的风险。
部长迈克·蓬佩奥称美国的反对源于从参与中世界卫生组织主席唐纳德·特朗普和其他美国官员指责这种新型的冠状病毒大流行，尽管卫生和公众服务部的一名高级官员后来表示，决定将疫苗资源留在美国
美国从7月份开始退出世卫组织，美国高级官员周三宣布，特朗普政府不会将剩余资金支付给该全球机构，尽管退出将视情况而定。
世卫组织正在加入疫苗联盟免疫联盟和流行病防备创新联盟，以协调新疫苗工作，即COVAX，并敦促各国参与。
安德鲁·卡瓦列罗-雷诺兹/法新社，通过盖蒂图像，文件
2020年3月20日，在马里兰州盖瑟斯堡的诺瓦克实验室，抗体发现和疫苗研发总监妮塔·帕特尔博士举起一个装有新冠肺炎潜在冠状病毒疫苗的小瓶。
制药公司和大学正在开发九种候选疫苗，COVAX的目标是同样安全、有效疫苗一旦他们首先得到所有参与国的批准，根据他们的人口。该项目将优先考虑卫生保健工作者，然后是弱势群体，如老年人和那些已有疾病的人，然后根据各国的个人需求分配剩余剂量。
瑞典首相斯特凡·勒文周二表示:“这不可能是一场只有少数赢家的竞赛，而COVAX基金是解决方案的重要组成部分——确保所有国家都能受益于世界上最大的候选人组合以及疫苗剂量的公平和公正分配。”
迄今为止，已有80个国家注册成为“潜在的自筹资金”伙伴，92个中低收入国家将通过合作获得支持并提高其购买力。
COVAX周二表示，到2021年底，目标是在全球范围内提供20亿种疫苗。
但这将需要更大的协调和财政捐助——按照世卫组织的标准，至少需要10亿美元以上的研发经费——至少目前不包括美国和中国的支持。
庞贝星期三说，“没有一个国家能与美国在世界范围内提供疫苗的承诺相提并论，”但是，当我们这样做的时候，我们也必须以一种有效的方式去做，而不是以政治为基础，以科学为基础——当我们从世界卫生组织那里看到事实证明并非如此。”
法布里斯·科菲里尼/法新社通过盖蒂图像，文件
2020年8月17日晚些时候拍摄的一张照片显示，在新冠肺炎疫情爆发期间，世界卫生组织在日内瓦总部出现了一个迹象。
指责世卫组织是政治性的，而不是以科学为基础的，这不是庞贝的新观点，尽管批评者说这充其量是不必要的。尽管世卫组织在确定这种新型冠状病毒具有传染性方面进展缓慢，但它从中国等成员国获取信息的能力有限。不管怎样，它在疫苗方面的工作受到了赞扬，包括今年早些时候受到庞贝的赞扬。
卫生与公众服务部全球事务办公室主任加勒特·格雷斯比给出了一个与庞贝不同的理由——称美国将首先关注美国人。
“一旦美国人民对疫苗的需求得到满足...他在周三接受记者采访时说:“我们当然会尽我们的一份力量来支持全球对疫苗的需求。”
尼古拉斯·卡姆/美联社
2020年9月2日，美国国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥在美国国务院的新闻发布会上发表讲话。
这一观点可能在美国公众中得到一些支持，但公共卫生专家认为这是短视的，他们说这将美国人置于危险之中。
“加入Covax是保证美国获得疫苗的一个简单措施——不管是谁先开发的。美国众议院科学、空间和技术委员会副主席、加州民主党众议员阿米贝拉(Ami Bera)说:“这种单干的做法让美国面临得不到疫苗的风险。”
美国周三采取了另一个步骤来削弱世卫组织，宣布它将不会支付世卫组织2020财年预算的剩余资金。
在今年早些时候支付了大约5800万美元之后，美国欠了大约6200万美元的“分摊”会费，用于资助世卫组织的办公室和工作人员。但是负责国际组织事务的副助理国务卿内里莎·库克星期三说，政府正在把这些资金转用于美国欠联合国系统的其他债务。
阿德南·阿比迪/路透社
2020年8月31日，印度新德里，一名穿着个人防护装备的卫生工作者用拭子从当地卫生中心的一个人身上采集鼻样本，以检测新冠肺炎。
“世界卫生组织需要改革，这首先要证明其独立于中国共产党，”库克说，他特别呼吁提高透明度和问责制，以及“更快、更高质量的沟通。”
特朗普政府仍将向世卫组织提供4000万美元用于流感疫苗项目，6800万美元用于叙利亚和利比亚的小儿麻痹症和手术。格雷斯比说，这些一次性捐款是美国寻找其他执行伙伴的收尾阶段的一部分。
美国还将寻求参加世界卫生组织的某些会议，并对该机构进行改革，尽管美国的参与会因置身事外而被削弱。
格雷斯比否认了这一点，他说:“我们确实有相当大的影响力，如果他们有兴趣看到美国留下来，他们会认真对待，认真谈判。”
US declines to join global COVID-19 vaccine effort because of WHO's role
The U.S. andChinahave both declined to join a 172-country effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a vaccine forCOVID-19.
The decision undermines the global effort to collaborate on a vaccine by encouraging others to fend for themselves first, according to public health experts, and risks Americans not getting access to a successful vaccine developed by another country.
Secretary of StateMike Pompeosaid U.S. opposition stemsfrom the involvementof the World Health Organization, which PresidentDonald Trumpand other U.S. officials have blamed for the novel coronavirus pandemic, although a senior official from the Department of Health and Human Services said later the decision was to keep vaccine resources in the U.S.
The U.S. began the withdrawal process from the WHO in July, and senior U.S. officials announced Wednesday that the Trump administration would not pay its remaining funds to the global agency despite withdrawal being contingent on doing so.
The WHO is joining the vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to coordinate the new vaccine effort, known as COVAX and urging countries to participate.
Dr. Nita Patel, Director of Antibody discovery and Vaccine development, lifts a vial with a potential coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine at Novavax labs in Gaithersburg, Md., March 20, 2020.
With nine vaccine candidates, under development by pharmaceutical companies and universities, COVAX aims to equally deliver safe, effectivevaccinesonce they have first received approval to all participating countries, based on their populations. The project will prioritize health care workers, then vulnerable groups like the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, before distributing remaining doses based on countries' individual needs.
"This cannot be a race with a few winners, and the COVAX Facility is an important part of the solution -- making sure all countries can benefit from access to the world's largest portfolio of candidates and fair and equitable distribution of vaccine doses," Stefan Löfven, Sweden's prime minister, said Tuesday.
So far, 80 countries have signed up as "potentially self-financing" partners, with 92 low- and middle-income countries that would receive support and increase their purchasing power by working together.
By the end of 2021, the goal is to deliver two billion vaccines globally, COVAX said Tuesday.
But that will require greater coordination and financial contributions -- at least $1 billion more for research and development, per WHO -- and for now at least, it will not include support from the U.S. and China.
Pompeo said Wednesday that "no nation will match" the U.S. commitment to delivering vaccines around the world, "But it is also imperative that when we do that, we need to go do so in a way that's effective, not political, that is science-based -- when we have seen demonstrated from the World Health Organization that it is not that."
A photo taken in the late hours of Aug. 17, 2020, shows a sign of the World Health Organization at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The charge that WHO is political and not science-based is not a new one from Pompeo, although critics say it is gratuitous at best. While WHO was slow to determine the novel coronavirus was contagious, it is limited in its ability to demand information from member states like China. Either way, its work on vaccines has been praised, including by Pompeo earlier this year.
Garrett Grigsby, director of the Global Affairs Office at the Department of Health and Human Services, provided a different reason than Pompeo -- saying the U.S. would focus first on Americans.
"Once the American people, their needs with respect to the vaccine, are met ... we certainly will be looking to do our fair share in terms of supporting the global need for vaccinations," he told reporters Wednesday.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 2, 2020.
That notion may have some support among the U.S. public, but it has been cast as short-sighted by public health experts, who say it puts Americans at risk down the road.
"Joining Covax is a simple measure to guarantee U.S. access to a vaccine -- no matter who develops it first. This go-it-alone approach leaves America at risk of not getting a vaccine," said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., a doctor and vice chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
The U.S. took another step to undermine the WHO on Wednesday, announcing that it will not pay the balance of its remaining funds for the agency's budget in fiscal year 2020.
After paying approximately $58 million earlier this year, the U.S. owes about $62 million as part of its "assessed" contributions, which fund WHO offices and staff. But Nerissa Cook, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs, said Wednesday the administration was redirecting those funds to other U.S. debts to the United Nations system.
A health worker in personal protective equipment uses a swab to collect a nasal sample from a person at a local health center to test for COVID-19 in New Delhi, India, on Aug. 31, 2020.
"The WHO needs to reform, and that is starting with demonstrating its independence from the Chinese Communist Party," said Cook, specifically calling for greater transparency and accountability and "speedier and higher quality of communications."
The Trump administration will still provide WHO $40 million for flu vaccine programs and $68 million for polio and operations in Syria and Libya. Those one-time contributions are part of a wind-down period as the U.S. looks for other implementing partners, according to Grigsby.
The U.S. will also seek to attend certain WHO meetings and to effect reform at the agency, even though its hand to do so would be weakened by being outside.
Grigsby rejected that, saying, "We actually do have quite a bit of leverage, and if they’re interested in seeing the United States stay, they will take that seriously and negotiate seriously."
