Biden spokesperson rules out helping Canada, Mexico with vaccine supply before all Americans are inoculated | CBC News

The White House spokesperson today ruled out sending vaccines to continental partners like Canada and Mexico, saying U.S.

President Joe Biden is committed to getting every American vaccinated before sharing doses with other countries.

COVID-19 vaccine supply with allies.

"The president has made clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to every American.

Canada is a vaccine laggard in the Western world right now; dozens of other countries have vaccinated more people per capita. The U.S.

is expected to have enough supply to vaccinate 4.5 times more people, per capita, than Canada in the first three months of 2021.

Biden has so far maintained the past administration's policy of earmarking virtually all U.S.-made vaccines for the American market.

That policy has forced Canada to turn to European plants for supply, despite the geographic proximity of those American operations.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week, however, that Canada is expecting part of its supply of the AstraZeneca product to be shipped from U.S.

could talk about sharing supply.

"But our focus, [Biden's] focus, the administration's focus is on ensuring that every American is vaccinated, and once we accomplish that objective we're happy to discuss further steps beyond that," she said.

"The next step is economic recovery and that is ensuring that our neighbours, Mexico and Canada, have similarly managed the pandemic so that we can open borders and build back better.".