U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) are encouraging the Biden administration to devise a plan enabling any surplus COVID-19 vaccine to be forwarded to Latin America and the Caribbean.
The legislators sent correspondence to President Joe Biden regarding the initiative, detailing how the pandemic continues to ravage multiple countries in the region, with Latin America and the Caribbean accounting for one-third of the total COVID-19 global death toll.
“It is critical that the United States expand our efforts to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable are vaccinated,” the legislators wrote. “Nearly 77 percent of all visitors to the United States thus far in 2021 have come from Latin America and the Caribbean, many to visit family members. Given the frequency and number of people traveling between the region and the United States, we urge you to quickly develop a plan to share vaccines with countries in need.”
The lawmakers indicated without domestic engagement and leadership, competitors will continue efforts to use their less effective vaccines as leverage to coerce Latin American and Caribbean nations in support of a diplomatic agenda opposed to that of the United States.
“In just one example, earlier this year, China promised vaccine shipments to Paraguay in exchange for Paraguayan government ceasing recognition of Taiwan,” the legislators concluded.
The lawmakers indicated the Biden Administration recently announced it would share 60 million doses of unused AstraZeneca vaccines with other countries. The final list of countries slated to receive the donations has not been decided.