Biden's new vaccine goal still falls short

The Biden administration pledges 500 million new doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine; Brazil's top health official tests positive for Covid-19 while in New York City.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes

Biden boosts vaccine donations

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• President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will increase the US’s global donation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to just over 1 billion doses. [NPR / Tamara Keith]
• Thus far, the US has purchased about 500 million doses to donate, and sent out about 160 million of them to 100 different countries — more doses than the rest of the world’s contributions combined. [CBS News/ Melissa Quinn]
• Biden made the announcement at a virtual summit on Wednesday as global Covid-19 deaths approached 5 million and as the US and other wealthy countries have faced criticism for offering booster doses to their citizens while many in poor countries wait for their first dose. [Deutsche Welle]
• About 43 percent of the global population is vaccinated, but in some countries that number is 2 percent or less. Wednesday, Biden called on wealthy countries to help ensure 70 percent of the global population is vaccinated in the next year, a target that would require about 11 billion doses. [BBC]
• Biden also announced plans to increase US financial support of vaccine production abroad, as well as monetary support for the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) to improve global distribution logistics. [Washington Post / John Wagner]
• About 15 percent of the vaccine doses pledged by wealthy countries have been distributed. Covax, the World Health Organization mechanism to distribute vaccines, has struggled to get the vaccine to poorer countries due to production and supply issues, as well as vaccine hoarding by rich countries. [AP / Zeke Miller]
• The newly announced donation will cost the US about $3.5 billion, or $7 per dose. The shots are set to ship to 92 poor and lower-middle-income countries, plus all 55 member states of the African Union, starting in January. [Reuters / Jeff Mason and Carl O’donnell]

Brazil’s top health official tests positive for Covid-19

• Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. [CNN / Rodrigo Pedroso and Jessie Yeung]
• Queiroga, a cardiologist, received at least one dose of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine earlier this year. He tweeted Tuesday that he was quarantining in the US and following all safety protocols; the UN is conducting contact tracing and thus far hasn’t found any close contacts who might have been exposed to the virus. [NYT / Ernesto Londoño and Shashank Bengali]
• Queiroga was at least the second member of Brazil’s delegation to test positive during the trip. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for Covid-19 in July of last year, apparently broke UN rules by attending a  meeting inside despite not being vaccinated. [Washington Post / Rachel Pannett]
• Bolsonaro, who is campaigning for reelection, has been widely criticized for his government’s response to the pandemic, which has left nearly 600,000 dead in Brazil. [NPR / Jaclyn Diaz]

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Lebanon’s inflation rate has hit a record high, sending food prices up by more than 20 percent in the past month, amid economic and political turmoil exacerbated by the 2020 Beirut port explosion. [Bloomberg via Al Jazeera / Ainhoa Goyeneche and Dana Khraiche]

• Federal Reserve policy meetings wrap Wednesday. Officials indicate that the body will raise interest rates and put the brakes on asset spending, two measures it used to bolster the economy during the pandemic. [NYT / Jeanna Smialek]
• The Spanish island of La Palma is enduring the fourth day of a massive volcano eruption, which has forced thousands of people from their homes. [Reuters / Borja Suarez and Marco Trujillo]

• Following a call between President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, French ambassador to the US Philippe Étienne will be returned to his post days after Macron recalled him due to a rift over the AUKUS submarine deal. [Politico / Quint Forgey]

“It’s massive. It may be the biggest domain-style leak I’ve seen and, as an extremism researcher, it’s certainly the most interesting. It’s an embarrassment of riches — stress on the embarrassment.”

[Megan Squire, a computer science professor and right-wing extremism researcher at Elon University, on the hacker group Anonymous’ breach of Epik, a favorite domain host of right-wing websites.]

From its beginnings as a niche personal computer company, Apple became the preeminent maker of consumer tech products, a cultural trendsetter, and the most valuable company in the world. And along the way, it changed the way we live.

Land of the Giants: The Apple Revolution is hosted by Recode’s Peter Kafka. New episodes drop Wednesdays wherever you listen to podcasts. [Spotify]

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