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Comment by sudosysgen | Hacker News Reader

The only reason these doses were donated is because they couldn't be used.

When the doses could be used, the US jealously guarded them, while the EU, Russia, China and even Cuba shared.

The 100 million doses that were "donated" almost two years later is a very poor excuse for hogging the supply when it mattered most.

As for the optics or donating - it was done only so that the US could say "we donated the most" while many, many countries actually supplied a lot more. Paying 3-4$ per dose is not an issue for almost any country, and when it actually is the EU, Russia, China et al. had no issues discounting or even donating them.

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Are we now saying donating unused things is inferior to donating things that could be used? I think this is a horrible take. Also two years since when? US had regular supply of vaccine only since March.

Donating things years after they are needed is worse, to put it plainly.

The EU and China started arranging the export of vaccines before even they had a regular supply. Talks for the export of vaccines from those countries started almost two years ago from now, ie, early 2020.

Does it matter when talks of exporting started if it wasn't actually available at that time?

Were those doses exclusory? If not, then there's no problem because producing them had no good or bad effect on other countries. If it was exclusory, then shouldn't it be a country's first priority to ensure its own citizens' safety first?

If your house is burning down, do you let your neighbor use your water hose before you can put out your own fire?

All available factories were running at maximum capacity, so yes.

Various other countries solved this better. For example, I know two that swapped a large amount of vaccines. One had vaccines near their use-by date in a warehouse, the other thought it could use them in time, and promised to supply the first country with vaccines with later use-by dates.

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