Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne has confirmed that the Prime Minister has reached out directly to US President Joe Biden to request vaccines, after Biden’s announcement of his intent to distribute 80 million vaccines overseas.
Biden made the announcement on Twitter on Monday, saying, “America will never be fully safe while this pandemic is raging globally. That’s why today, I’m announcing that over the next six weeks we will send 80 million vaccine doses overseas. It is the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do. It is the strong thing to do.”
In a news conference at the White House on Monday, Biden said the donation would include 20 million Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines that would be added to a previously announced donation of 60 million AstraZeneca vaccines.
The AstraZeneca vaccines would have to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they can be donated. That approval has not yet been granted and the length of the approval process has not yet been established.
Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Browne said Dr Rowley has been the lead with respect to regional and global advocacy on the issue of vaccine access and equity.
“In that regard, the Prime Minister has followed up directly with President Biden, with respect to the provision of vaccines to Caricom and specifically to Trinidad and Tobago, based on the announced initiative from the White House and the administration of the United States.
“He has been following up consistently with high-level contacts within the US administration and leading the advocacy with contacts such as Maxine Waters and Bennie Thompson (members of Congress), high-level influential figures in the US administration, as well as with the Atlantic Council, a high level think tank which is very influential in the US system. The Prime Minister has written multiple times to President Biden and has received responses and that communication and engagement is ongoing.”
The minister said he and other public servants had also been working assiduously on the matter.
“On Monday, I met with the US charge d’affaires of the embassy here in Port of Spain, a direct personal meeting to follow up on the scaling-up initiative that President Biden has announced, and again, very targeted advocacy continues. The Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs has been following up and supporting consistently with high-level contacts via our mission in Washington, DC, and the ambassador there has been fully mobilised and tasked to follow up specifically on this new vaccine initiative.”
Browne said the 80 million doses were a welcome scaling-up of the previous offer of 60 million doses for countries outside the US.
“This is welcome, this is good news for TT, and its public servants are well engaged and working hard, pressing home this issue. We look forward on behalf of TT, on behalf of Caricom, on behalf of all small developing countries, to bringing home benefits for our people based on this initiative.”
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