The White House will buy hundreds of millions more doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to other countries, two people familiar with the deal told The Washington Post Sept. 17.
The purchase will be formally announced early next week and is slated to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the sources said.
The news comes amid global public health experts' criticism that the U.S. is not living up to President Joe Biden's pledge that the country "is going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world." They argue it is inappropriate for the U.S. to be pursuing a booster rollout at the same time much of the world is still waiting on initial COVID-19 vaccinations.