US lawmakers urge Joe Biden to ship AstraZeneca vaccines to India

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is made and retailed in India as Covishield, is not approved for use in the US.

A group of powerful US Democratic lawmakers have expressed frustration over the delay in the implementation of the Biden administration’s decision to release the country’s supply of unusable AstraZeneca vaccines to India and other countries that need them, and demanded their speedy delivery.

More than 52% of eligible Americans — 147.5 million — have received at least one does of a vaccine approved in the country. (Reuters)

“Time is of the essence. Without assistance from the United States, new vaccine-resistant mutations could arise across the globe, threatening international public health and the United States’ national security and economic prosperity,” four Democrats who head powerful congressional committees said in a joint letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The signatories are Carolyn Maloney, chairperson of one of the most powerful of House committees, the oversight committee; James Clyburn, chair of the House select subcommittee on the Covid-19 crisis; Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Indian American chair of the House subcommittee on economic and consumer policy; and Stephen Lynch, chair of the House subcommittee on national security.

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is made and retailed in India as Covishield, is not approved for use in the US. More than 52% of eligible Americans — 147.5 million — have received at least one does of a vaccine approved in the country.