---
title: "US, Russia, China Opt Out of Global Plan to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines"
description: "The World Health Organization and other groups are coordinating a global effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. refused to help."
date: "2020-09-23"
modified: "2020-09-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/us-russia-china-opt-out-global-distribute-covid19-vaccines"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "medicine"
  - "vaccine"
  - "WHO"
---

# US, Russia, China Opt Out of Global Plan to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines

![The World Health Organization and other groups are coordinating a global effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. refused to help.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/us-russia-china-opt-out-global-distribute-covid19-vaccines.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

The World Health Organization (WHO) is helping coordinate a massive effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines around the world — and in a characteristic move, the Trump administration decided not to help out.

An impressive 156 countries — 64 of them high-income nations including Australia and Japan — have already signed on to the initiative, called the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility, which hopes to distribute 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021, *[Ars Technica ](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/09/covid-19-vaccine-pact-includes-156-countries-but-not-us-china-or-russia/>)*[reports](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/09/covid-19-vaccine-pact-includes-156-countries-but-not-us-china-or-russia/>). Dozens more are expected to join in the coming days, but notable absences include the U.S., China, and Russia.

"This isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Monday press conference.

Without broader support, COVAX may not get the funding it needs to succeed. The plan is to pool resources to support nine experimental vaccines that are already underway, and then purchase doses once it's ready. So far, the initiative has raised just $3 billion of the $35 billion it needs.

"This is not charity, it's in every country's best interest," Tedros added. "We sink or we swim together."

[China](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-giving-people-covid-vaccine-not-done-tested>) and [Russia](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/russian-experimental-covid-vaccine>) have already begun distributing experimental vaccines, even before clinical trials designed to test their safety and efficacy were completed, and U.S. President Trump has [expressed interest](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/trump-approve-covid-vaccine-before-done-testing>) in doing the same. Regardless, Trump confirmed earlier this month that he wouldn't support COVAX, *Ars* reports.

The U.S. has already made deals with vaccine developers to secure doses once tests are complete — a move that Tedros has [previously ](<https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2020/09/08/tedros-adhanom-on-why-vaccine-nationalism-harms-efforts-to-halt-the-pandemic>)[called](<https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2020/09/08/tedros-adhanom-on-why-vaccine-nationalism-harms-efforts-to-halt-the-pandemic>) "vaccine nationalism."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)