Lawmakers Send Letter To Biden Asking Him To Take Further Steps With Vaccine Distribution

A group of 30 democratic members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter to encourage the Biden administration to do more with their global vaccine distribution plan. The letter is written by the Chair of the Progressive Caucus and Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal. Jayapal said “this is urgent, I mean, people need them right now. And that is a good first step.” in addition to the vaccine distribution, lawmakers are pushing for the White House to invest up to $25 billion to jump start the production of 8 billion vaccine doses, use U.S. diplomatic influence to help facilitate the transfer of technology to help other countries produce vaccines on their own, support a new cost free “international monetary fund reserve asset” to help low-income countries strengthen their public health budgets and convene a global vaccine summit with world leaders to help coordinate development and distribution of vaccines. Jayapal said “the United States, thanks to Biden’s leadership, and Congress’s actions, has been able to really turn the tide in getting the vaccines out to people across the country, but this thing is not going away.” The lawmakers are urging President Biden to help countries such as India, South Africa and Brazil where the coronavirus crisis is far from over.