Secret Trump-era vaccine plan prioritized rich allies like Taiwan and Israel above poor nations which needed them more

• A Trump-era plan laid out how to share coronavirus vaccines with other countries, Politico reported.
• The plan put political allies ahead of poorer nations for gifts of vaccines, officials said.

A secret coronavirus vaccine-distribution plan from the Trump administration put rich allies like Israel and Taiwan ahead of poorer nations that needed more help, Politico reported.

Five current and former officials described the document to Politico, saying Trump officials explored a plan that prioritized countries it considered strategic allies.

The administration made the list in the months before coronavirus vaccines were authorized for use, Politico reported.

Trump's team never executed the plan, as Trump lost his bid to be re-elected and was out of office by the time the vaccines were in widespread use.

The priority allies in the document included Israel, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea and some European countries, Politico reported.

Some of these nations were among the most successful in the world at securing vaccines by themselves.

Health experts have repeatedly emphasised a special need to get vaccines to poorer nations to build immunity there to.

Vaccine rollouts there — as well as being logistically harder in the first place — were significantly hampered by rich nations, particularly in Europe and North America, buying up a disproportionate share of the global supply.

Politico asked one official who was involved in making the list if there were concerns about deprioritizing poorer nations. They responded "Not really."

The official said Trump officials thought many of the countries identified as strategic allies might struggle to buy the shots themselves.

Multiple categories

The document put countries into multiple categories. These included those strategic allies, then countries that helped develop vaccines, then countries in global vaccine-sharing programs. A final segment included everybody else.

Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Politico: "We thought that the categories themselves made sense at the time. The underserved countries were third on the list."

He was in charge of briefing the White House on the list, Politico reported, but was not involved in making it.

Officials told Politico that the list also considered factors like how big an outbreak countries were dealing with. One official told Politico that officials from the State Department, the Pentagon, USAID and the Department of Homeland Security and experts helped with the process, without giving precise details.

Passed to Biden

The list was passed to President Joe Biden in 2021, Politico reported, but was rejected.

A Biden official told Politico that the Biden the administration "does not use the previous administration's policy or the cited list to make vaccine sharing decisions."

Another Biden official told Politico that they organize vaccine distribution programs that depend on need, and have no "strings attached," though the precise system was not made clear.