President Biden was urged to take immediate action to halt the global spread of the coronavirus on Tuesday by more than 175 public health experts, scientists, and activists. They warned that if the rest of the world is not vaccinated, newer variants of the virus, including those that may evade vaccine protection, are likely to emerge and spread.
In a joint letter to senior White House officials published with The Washington Post on Tuesday, the experts urged Biden to act quickly.
Experts Urge That Vice President Biden Do More To Expand The Distribution Of COVID Vaccines
According to him, declaring an aggressive worldwide vaccine production program over the next 30 days is the only way to contain the epidemic, save the valuable achievements gained thus far, and lay the groundwork for future vaccine infrastructure.
The health experts address Biden directly in a separate letter, emphasizing that the delta version is creating a global outbreak of illnesses, including in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where many inhabitants have yet to receive a single shot. Meanwhile, they observe, the US has accumulated more than 55 million doses of mRNA vaccinations but is giving less than 900,000 per day, with millions of Americans continuing to refuse the injections.
The authors urged Biden to begin delivering millions of stored pills every week immediately. They estimated that it would take more than two months to give the vaccine doses presently stockpiled at this rate. The letters are co-signed by Tom Frieden, who served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration; Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University’s school of public health; Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization focused on the developing world; and other global health and infectious disease leaders. Additionally, the letter was co-signed by over 50 organizations.
A request for information from the White House did not get a response within minutes. In their letter, some signers stated that they had privately appealed to senior Biden administration officials, including infectious disease specialist Anthony S. Fauci and David Kessler, the top pandemic adviser. Still, they had become dissatisfied with the slow pace of global vaccine development. A recent study conducted by the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project found that less than 4 percent of Africans and around 30 percent of Asians have received one or more doses of a coronavirus vaccine, compared to more than 60 percent of American adults.
For months, public health experts have criticized the White House, claiming that Biden has announced piecemeal efforts to address the worldwide epidemic but has done too little to scale up urgent vaccine manufacturing.
Staley and the other letter signers pledged to intensify their demonstrations, including targeting authorities and businesses seen to be delaying action. They mentioned that the Pharma took years before granting access to its AIDS medications to the rest of the world. With covid vaccinations, they will not allow it to happen.”
The Biden administration has defended its worldwide response, with officials reporting that the US had supplied more than 110 million vaccine doses to dozens of countries this week. Additionally, the US is distributing 500 million doses of mRNA vaccine that it acquired from Pfizer and intended to share with almost 100 low- and middle-income countries.
Activists and watchdog organizations argue that the government should go far further. Their dissatisfaction has been directed against Moderna, which got more than $1.3 billion in federal financing to develop its vaccine but, they believe, has done too little to share its expertise.
Public Citizen also asserted Tuesday that Biden had broad authority to divulge data about Modern’s vaccine manufacturing method, citing Moderna’s April 2020 contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
