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It’s a round of shots for South Korea.
President Biden announced Friday that the US will be providing enough coronavirus vaccine doses to inoculate 550,000 of Seoul’s servicemembers.
“We’ll provide full vaccinations for all 550,000 of those Korean forces engaging with American forces on a regular basis, both for their sake as well as the sake of the American forces,” Biden told reporters during a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae In.
The announcement represents the first allocation of a total of 80 million vaccine doses the White House plans to distribute around the world over the next six weeks.
Biden said earlier this week he hopes to cast America as the “arsenal of vaccines,” a callback to the “arsenal of democracy” moniker given to the US during World War II by then-President Franklin Roosevelt.
At the same time, the White House has pledged not to attach policy conditions to countries receiving the doses.
South Korean soldiers prepare for military exercises near the city of Pohang, South Korea on October 23, 2006. AFP via Getty ImagesLater in the news conference, Biden suggested that “between the second half of 2021 and going in through 2022,” the US, South Korea and other industrialized nations “can produce as many as another billion doses of vaccine.”
“We, with advanced capabilities, have an obligation to do everything we can to provide for protection of the entire world,” Biden said. “I know that is an awfully, awfully, awfully ambitious proposal, but I think the nations that have the capacity are gonna be continuing to work toward getting that done.”
A health worker loads a Anhui Zhifei Longcom COVID-19 vaccine dose in Shenyang, China on May 21, 2021. AFP via Getty ImagesAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 160 million Americans had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of Thursday. More than 126 million Americans were considered fully vaccinated, approximately 38 percent of the total population.
“We think that over the remainder of 2021, we’re going to be able to vaccinate every American,” Biden said Friday. “We have enough vaccine to vaccinate every American, period. Right now. And we’re going to be able to do that by mid-summer, and we’re going to continue to get more people to engage in seeking the vaccine.
A National Guardswoman fills a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Maryland’s Wheaton Welcome Center in Wheaton, Maryland on May 21, 2021. Getty Images“I don’t believe, I never have believed, that there’s a large percentage of Americans who will not take the vaccine,” Biden added, “and we’re doing very imaginative things, and states are, to get people to show up and have the vaccine.”
With Post wires
