U.S. To Ship 20 Million Additional COVID Vaccine Doses Overseas

President Biden on Monday announced his intention to ship surplus doses of the coronavirus vaccine to needy nations abroad, including millions of doses of the U.S.-authorized Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The majority of the planned shipments will be of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which does not yet have authorization for use in the United States.

"We need to help fight the disease around the world," Biden told reporters at a briefing on the nation's progress against the virus. "It's the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, it's the strong thing to do."

The president said he plans to have some 80 million doses of the vaccine distributed overseas by the end of June, by which point Biden says the United States will have produced enough doses of the vaccine to cover its own citizens.