After Trump Signs Executive Order, U.N. Leaders Caution Against ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ – By Patrick Goodenough (CNS News) / Dec 10 2020
(CNSNews.com) – A day after President Trump signed an executive order prioritizing Americans in the distribution of U.S.-developed or funded coronavirus vaccines, senior U.N. leaders cautioned against “vaccine nationalism,” arguing that in a pandemic, “no-one is safe until everyone is safe.”
They did not refer directly to the U.S. situation. Britain on Tuesday became the first country to begin mass COVID-19 vaccinations, with thousands of elderly and vulnerable people and frontline health workers receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
The order signed by Trump on Tuesday makes it policy “to ensure Americans have priority access to free, safe, and effective COVID-19 vaccines.” Once every American who wants a vaccine has received it, it says, “it is in the interest of the United States to facilitate international access” to vaccines that have been developed in the U.S., or procured by the U.S. government.
Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the signing referred to the U.S. helping those in need around the world.
