Warren to President Biden: Use All Available Tools to Help Alleviate India's Spiraling Public Health Crisis
Warren also wrote to Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson asking about steps they are taking to expand global access to their COVID-19 vaccines
Washington, DC - United States Senator Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to President Biden urging his administration to leverage all tools and resources available to the United States to provide relief to India, which is "in the midst of an urgent humanitarian crisis that requires a robust response from its partners and allies abroad," as the Senator wrote in her letter to the President.
In her letter, Senator Warren calls on the Biden administration to take the following actions:
- "explore all options to direct critically needed resources to India, including through the use of the authorities granted to you by the Defense Production Act (DPA) to direct companies to both prioritize the production of critical materials such as ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), and vaccine materials for shipment to India;"
- "transfer the know-how required to produce these tools, including with the World Health Organization, so more manufacturers can rapidly come online around the world;"
- "divert any excess supply of ventilators, PPE, oxygen, diagnostic equipment, as well as vaccines to India to help treat those in need and mitigate the spread of the virus."
Senator Warren concludes: "India is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that threatens its 1.4 billion citizens, and billions more around the world. I urge you to leverage all resources and explore all tools available to the United States to alleviate this crisis."
Last Friday, Senator Warren joined a letter with several of her colleagues calling on the Biden administration to extend a temporary patent waiver (TRIPS) for COVID-19 vaccines in order to accelerate local development of the vaccine.
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