>Vaccines aren't distributed to countries one after another until each order is completed. Instead, the production is divided up and goes towards different orde

>Vaccines aren't distributed to countries one after another until each order is completed. Instead, the production is divided up and goes towards different orders If I purchase an item before others, purchase by far the most quantities of that item, pay by far the most overall, and pay a considerable amount of money toward funding its development (shades of Kickstarter), I should expect that item before others. By early June 2020 (<https://web.archive.org/web/20200603171013/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine-trump-moderna.html https://web.archive.org/web/20200603171013/https://www.nytim...>) the Trump administration had already identified and was planning to sign the aforementioned huge contracts with Moderna, AstraZeneca, J&J, Merck, and Pfizer. (An 80% success rate is fantastic in drug discovery.) By that time the US had already paid $2.2 billion to three of the companies. (Also note the skepticism throughout that any vaccines could be delivered anywhere within the timeframe the administration was promising.) By contrast, look at Canada as counterexample. Consider Maclean's desperate attempt to spin its procurement difficulties (<https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/where-did-canadas-vaccine-effort-actually-go-wrong/ https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/where-did-canadas-vaccin...>). If you look past the predictable eliding of the US's firstest-with-the-mostest contracts as an "export ban", the best the magazine can do is admit that * all Canadian contracts with vaccine providers that actually delivered were signed between late July and late September * all contracts were signed after the collapse of the CanSino deal, which Canada had loudly bragged about as proof of its savviness at obtaining vaccines ASAP and circumvent any US vaccine export ban (which, again, never happened), and which it has done its best since the collapse to pretend that the attempt to foil the perfidious Americans never ever existed * the other contracts that the magazine cites as proof that CanSino wasn't the only basket Ottawa was putting all its eggs in are with VBI (Who?) and USask. They may or may not yet deliver effective vaccines, but it's all now a bit beside the point, eh? >That's not true. The US government used the Defense Production Act to stop the exports of finished vaccines until some time ago. I specifically said vaccines. The US did invoke the Defense Production Act for certain medical equipment, to further ensure that its vaccine contracts are fulfilled first (<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/biden-uses-trump-s-america-first-vaccine-plan-to-corner-market?sref=gzDhqlP8 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/biden-use...>). But, let me quote (<https://www.ft.com/content/82fa8fb4-a867-4005-b6c2-a79969139119 https://www.ft.com/content/82fa8fb4-a867-4005-b6c2-a79969139...>): "The DPA does not allow the administration to block exports overseas". The US's vaccine contracts would be fulfilled first regardless (albeit possibly more slowly) without the DPA, because (as I said) the US was the first and paid the most. The US's Pfizer contract explicitly prohibited the company from exporting US-produced vaccine doses until March 31, but that was a moot point because the company only began to export US-produced doses at the end of April because it still had to fulfill said US contract first (<https://www.barrons.com/articles/pfizer-to-export-u-s-made-vaccine-doses-report-says-51619785111 https://www.barrons.com/articles/pfizer-to-export-u-s-made-v...>)