By Sue-Ann Wayow
AS the United States (US) Government announced its sharing of vaccines from Monday, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is being called upon to make requests for the vaccines.
The call came from Member of Parliament for Caroni East Dr Rishad Seecharan following the announcement that US President Joe Biden’s administration will be sharing its entire stock of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine once it gains Federal approval.
On Monday, he issued a press release stating that government should make an immediate request for the vaccines through the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain.
He said, “Today the Biden Administration announced that the US will begin sharing its entire pipeline of vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca, once the vaccine clears federal safety reviews, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months. The Rowley administration should not hesitate, as it did when India opened its vaccine supplies to the world in January 2021. We were the last of the CARICOM nations to write to the Prime Minister of India, asking for assistance with our Covid-19 recovery.”
He said that this country had great need for the vaccines especially with the evidence of the Brazilian Variant (P1).
The AstraZeneca vaccine is widely in use around the world but not yet authorised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). About 60 million more doses are in various stages of production and could be available to ship in May 2021 and June 2021, pending FDA sign-off. According to international reports, the US is still undecided as to which countries would receive the vaccines.
Dr Seecharan said, “ Proactive measures are required in order for us to be released from this pandemic induced lockdown and to ensure Trinidad and Tobago is placed on a path of an inclusive recovery. The capacity of the Government to procure and to deliver vaccines is the first step in achieving this goal and every facility should be explored during these uncertain times.”
