White House COVID-19 Czar: US Has ‘National Interest’ To Vaccinate Entire World

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients proclaimed that it is in the United States’ “national interest” to get the entire world vaccinated for COVID-19, coming after senators dropped a provision that would provide global funding in a spending package. “It is a real disappointment that there’s no global funding in this bill. This virus knows no borders, and it’s in our national interest to vaccinate the world and protect against possible new variants,” Zients said Tuesday during a briefing at the White House. A day before, senators said Monday that they came to an agreement to allocate $10 billion in funding for the federal government’s COVID-19 response program. No funding was provided to distribute vaccines worldwide. “Without additional funding for a global response, we won’t have resources to help get more shots in arms in countries in need,” Zients said. And due to the lack of funding, the United …  » Read full article