Schakowsky, Delauro, Doggett, and Blumenauer Call on Administration to Expand Global Vaccine Access

Statement

Today, Consumer Protection & Commerce Subcommittee Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Health Subcommittee Chairman Lloyd Doggett (TX-35) and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) issued the following joint statement calling on the Biden Administration to expand global vaccine access in hopes of putting an end to the COVID-19 pandemic:

"One year ago today, President Biden stood before every American with moral clarity and purpose to announce the United States would be shifting its position on the proposed IP waiver at the World Trade Organization.

"Unfortunately, Big Pharma continues to shamelessly protect its monopoly pricing scheme, despite receiving tens of billions of public dollars to develop COVID-19 vaccines. As such, the progress of global vaccination has been slower than we had hoped when President Biden made this announcement.

"For much of the world, COVID-19 remains a daily ordeal. Less than 20 percent of people in developing nations have received initial shots. Lack of supply during critical early months and unpredictable delivery times have made the most effective COVID-19 treatments unavailable in much of the world.

"Now, second-generation vaccines are being developed to protect people from being infected by recent variants. If the world repeats the grotesque inequity of access to the new vaccines and the most effective treatments, we know what will happen, because we just lived through it. Millions of people will suffer in raging outbreaks, which will also foster the development of new variants that can evade the new generation of vaccines.

"The only way to end the pandemic is to expand the production of vaccines and treatments. We cannot wait.

"It's past time for them to move towards a more just position, and we stand ready to assist Ambassador Katherine Tai in moving in that direction."