A senior State Department official said the Biden administration’s first obligation is to take care of the requirements of the American people.
A senior State Department official, defending US’s restrictions on the export of key raw materials for the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine that threatens to slow India’s vaccination drive, said the Biden administration’s first obligation is to take care of the requirements of the American people.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price, when asked when the Biden administration would decide on India’s request to lift a ban on the export of vaccine raw materials, said: “…the United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people. ”
“That campaign is well underway, and we’re doing that for a couple of reasons. Number one, we have a special responsibility to the American people. Number two, the American people, this country has been hit harder than any other country around the world more than 550,000 deaths, tens of millions of infections in this country alone,” he said on Thursday.
“It is not only in the US interest to see Americans vaccinated; but it is in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinated,” he said.
“The point the Secretary (of State Antony Blinken) has made repeatedly is that as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it is a threat to people everywhere. So as long as the virus is spreading uncontrolled in this country, it can mutate and it can travel beyond our borders. That, in turn, poses a threat well beyond the United States,” Mr Price said answering the questions.
He added that as for the rest of the world, “We will, of course, always do as much as we can, consistent with our first obligation.”
President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump had invoked the war-time Defence Production Act (DPA) that leaves US companies with no option but to give priority to the production of COVID-19 vaccines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for domestic production to combat the deadly pandemic in America, the worst-hit nation.
India is currently facing a massive second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, where hospitals are running out of of Oxygen supplies and medicines due to the overwhelming numbers of patients testing positive for the virus. The country on Friday added a record over 3.32 lakh new coronavirus cases in a single day taking the country’s tally to 1,62,63,695, while active cases crossed the 24-lakh mark.
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