“Therefore the US is looking at options to share the AstraZeneca doses with other countries as they become available.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the administration planned to distribute the vaccines to other countries in the “next few months”.
“We are in the planning process,” she said.
The Biden administration has been coming under increasing criticism from public health experts,business leaders and some Democrats for hoarding vaccines given the dire need in countries such as India.
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India is now recording around 350,000 new COVID-19 infections and around 2800 deaths each day.
The White House announced over the weekend that it would send “oxygen-related supplies,vaccine materials,and therapeutics” to India.
Democratic congressman Ro Khanna said:“The Biden administration can still do more,like give India our stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccines that won’t be used in the US and have already opened up to Mexico and Canada.”
He also called on the government to waive the intellectual property rights for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for at least six months so that developing nations such as India could manufacture their own supplies of those vaccines.
Democratic congressman Andy Kim said:“This is India’s moment of need and America must answer the call to help.
“I urge Biden to now authorise release of AstraZeneca vaccine to India and other allies. Alliances are tested in the darkest of days,and we must step up.”
The US announcement comes as the European Commission said it launched legal action against AstraZeneca for not respecting its contract for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines,and for not having a “reliable” plan to ensure timely deliveries.
The company said that the legal action was without merit and pledged to defend itself strongly in court.
Under the contract,the company had committed to making its “best reasonable efforts” to deliver 180 million vaccine doses to the EU in the second quarter of this year,for a total of 300 million in the period from December to June.
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But AstraZeneca said in a statement on March 12 it would aim to deliver only one-third of that by the end of June,of which about 70 million would be in the second quarter.
Meanwhile,an agreement between the US and three of its closest Indo-Pacific partners to produce up to a billion coronavirus vaccine doses in India by the end of 2022 to supply other Asian countries was “still on track,” senior US officials said on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
“It’s moving forward expeditiously,” a senior administration official told reporters in a briefing call,referring to the agreement last month between the leaders of the United States,India,Japan and Australia,a grouping knownas the Quad.
with Reuters
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