US ranks behind EU, Australia, Britain in vaccine orders: Report

WASHINGTON • Thirty-one countries have reserved more Covid-19 vaccine per capita than the United States, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

The US Operation Warp Speed programme is credited with shaving years off the typical development timeline for vaccines that are on the brink of being deployed. But the US has yet to exercise some options to lock down additional supplies that could offer extra insurance against manufacturing problems or scientific delays.

Bloomberg has reviewed more than 80 agreements between vaccine makers and countries worldwide to reserve allocations while they are still in development.

Canada, Britain and Australia top the list, with enough vaccine doses reserved to cover their populations several times over. The US, meanwhile, ranks 32nd in per-capita vaccine reservations. It is behind the 27 European Union countries that banded together to pre-order vaccines, and sandwiched between Chile and Japan in 31st and 33rd, respectively, according to Bloomberg's analysis.

"It's a shocking abdication of government responsibility," said Professor Craig Garthwaite, director of the programme on healthcare at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "I'm so demoralised this will delay by another month or two getting the economy going."

US officials have disagreed with the idea that there will be any delay for most Americans to get the shots by the middle of next year.

Number of vaccine doses the United States has secured under Operation Warp Speed, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

"Operation Warp Speed signed contracts over the past several months with six companies with options for up to a total of three billion vaccine doses," a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said in an e-mail statement. "We are confident that we will meet our goal to have enough vaccine doses for any American who wants one in the second quarter of 2021."

BLOOMBERG