On Dec. 6, 2021, the USAID announced the foundation of a new whole-of-government effort, the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX), to accelerate global efforts to get COVID-19 shots into arms and enhance international coordination to identify and rapidly overcome access barriers to save lives now, with a priority on scaling up support to countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The most recent announcement, of which $315 million supported vaccine readiness programs, the U.S. had committed more than $1.6 billion in funding to help get shots into arms around the world.