While buoyed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s advancement of the Build Back Better Act, and the offerings therein, the United States COVID-19 Global Vaccination Caucus chimed in last week to note that its offers for vaccine manufacturing are just a beginning.
The caucus consists of U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), along with U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ed Markey (D-MA). Together, they advocate for vaccine manufacturing, production and distribution in low and middle-income countries in an effort to increase vaccinations overseas and in turn block the spread of COVID-19 variants to the U.S.
“We are encouraged that the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed its portion of the Build Back Better Act today with the inclusion of $2 billion to support expanded global and domestic vaccine production capacity,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “According to one estimate, this funding is sufficient to produce an additional 1 billion doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine or an additional 500 million doses of the NIH-Moderna vaccine by mid-2022. With nearly 60 percent of the world yet to receive a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine — including less than 2 percent of people living in low-income countries — we must dramatically expand global access to these life-saving vaccines.”
Many scientists have stated the risks of heavily vaccinating certain regions at the expense of others. Allowing COVID-19 to flourish in other regions of the world risks the continued, quickened emergence of variants that may not be as susceptible to existing vaccines. As such, the caucus argued that the $2 billion as proposed for vaccine manufacturing is merely an opening shot for a need much closer to $34 billion.
The latter was an investment figure instead proposed by the bicameral Nullifying Opportunities for Variants to Infect and Decimate (NOVID) Act — H.R. 3778/S.B. 1976 — earlier this year, in an effort to expand international coronavirus prevention and vaccination efforts. Several of the caucus members were behind that legislation, and now, they have signaled the intention to press the White House on its plans for expanding vaccine production.
“We cannot stand idle while the rest of the world burns, nor can we wait for the next deadly variant to reach U.S. shores,” caucus members wrote. “The COVID-19 Global Vaccination Caucus is pleased that the Energy and Commerce Committee has taken this initial action, and we will continue to fight for more funding to increase manufacturing capacity and to ensure end-to-end delivery of vaccines around the world.”