INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nearly 800,000 doses of mpox vaccine pledged to African countries working to stamp out devastating outbreaks are headed for the waste bin
because they weren't shipped in time, according to reporting by Politico.The nearly 800,000 doses were part of a donation promised under the
Biden administration, which was meant to deliver more than 1 million doses
Overall, the US, the European Union, and Japan pledged to collectively provide 5 million doses to nearly a dozen African countries
The US has only sent 91,000 doses so far, and only 220,000 currently still have enough shelf life to make it
The rest are expiring within six months, making them ineligible for shipping."For a vaccine to be shipped to a country, we need a minimum of
six months before expiration to ensure that the vaccine can arrive in good condition and also allow the country to implement the
vaccination," Yap Boum, an Africa CDC deputy incident manager, told Politico.Politico linked the vaccines' lack of timely shipment to the
Trump administration's brutal cuts to foreign aid programs as well as the annihilation of the US Agency for International Development
(USAID), which administered those aid programs.
