US lawmakers urge President Biden to ensure equitable administration of COVID-19 vaccine

Over 40 American lawmakers in a letter have urged the US President Joe Biden to take all the measures to ensure equitable administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the world. Members of the Congress, including Indian-American lawmakers Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Tom Malinowski and Ro Khanna amongst others, called on the White House. They outlined five specific measures, from financial investments to diplomatic efforts, to achieve the goal of a rapid and equitable vaccination programme while mitigating COVID-19 globally.

“We urge you to pursue additional steps to advance a bold, comprehensive strategy to vaccinate the world as quickly as possible,” the lawmakers said. “It is imperative that the United States act quickly and deploy every tool in our arsenal. Now is the time to build international cooperation and solidarity in ways we have never seen before, including using the full force of the US diplomacy, economic and commercial leadership, legal authorities and membership in multilateral institutions. The fate of our own health and safety in the United States is inextricably connected to the well-being and protection of the most valuable among us worldwide.”

The lawmakers also urged President Biden to ensure the immediate release of the 80 million doses of vaccine which the government plans to share with the world, allocating the committed doses based on where surging numbers are greatest while also reassign the country’s stockpile to release even more vaccines immediately to countries around the world.

They also suggested to invest an additional USD 25 billion in the Build Back Better agenda to authorize the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to oversee the production of 8 billion mRNA vaccine doses; sufficient to vaccinate half the world and one of the quickest ways to increase the immediate supply of vaccines globally. The Congressmen urged the administration to use all available tools available tools of US influence, persuasion, diplomacy and legal authorities to facilitate the rapid and widespread transfer of technology and expansion of vaccine production, including directing the National Institutes of Health to participate in the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool programme and negotiating and securing vaccine licencing agreements with existing manufacturers to enable broad sharing of vaccine technology and industrial processes to scale up production.

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Furthermore, the lawmakers recommended a global vaccine summit with world leaders to spur cooperation and coordination in the development, production and distribution of vaccines, encouraging research transparency, open access, and global collaboration in engineering and manufacturing with a goal of accelerating universal vaccination.