President Joe Biden mistakenly referred to COVAX, the global vaccine program, as COVID [Chinese coronavirus] three different times during a press conference on Sunday.
The White House transcript of the press conference corrected Biden’s remarks with brackets (emphasis added):
I committed that we would provide a half a billion — a half a billion beyond the 80 million we’ve already done — half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine, which we contracted to pay for, in addition to money we put into the COVID [COVAX] project, which is that COVID [COVAX] is — and I know you all know, but a lot of people may not know what COVID [COVAX] is — that is a system whereby they’re going to provide funding for states to be able to get access to vaccines on their own, as well.
The president spoke to reporters at a press conference in the United Kingdom after the G7 Summit of world leaders.
Biden’s statements about “COVID” puzzled some journalists, particularly after he said, “a lot of people may not know what COVID is.”
But the president was referring to COVAX, the global effort the World Health Organization started to help developing countries get access to coronavirus vaccines.
Biden announced last week he would provide 500 million shots of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for developing countries on top of existing funding for COVAX.
The White House committed to $4 billion in funding for COVAX.