Question is in the title.
In particular, as Pfizer and Moderna are both US companies, and the development of the vaccines was directly or indirectly funded by the US government, why would any non-US countries get any supplies at all if there is a need in the US? Though possibly the US is maxing out the distribution channels anyway so no reason to not help out the rest of the world.
But in any event, what I’m wondering about is who sets policy in regards to which countries are allocated what amount of vaccine, and on what basis?
Pfizer didn’t receive any Warp Speed funding for developing the vaccine. They received a contract through OWS for a set number of doses. The US government has little to no control over how other vaccine doses are distributed. Pfizer worked with a German company to develop the vaccine.
Other companies did hand over some rights to the US government to control distribution and manufacturing of the virus when they signed up for the OWS funding, but it’s not unlimited and doesn’t preclude them from selling doses to other countries or companies.
Basically, doing business with the US Government doesn’t mean you give away all rights to the product produced.
They’re allocated according to pre-order contracts between governments and producers at the moment with some international agreements also affecting. Israel specifically has solid guarantee of supply in exchange for vaccination/patient data, for an extreme example.
That tussle is over virus supplies that the US government bought, but hasn’t given approval to use under an emergency order. It’s stockpiled as a backup right now. The argument isn’t about the vaccine manufacturers deciding where the supply goes. AstraZeneca doesn’t control those doses although they may have them physically at their facilities right now.