Raja Krishnamoorthi

05/03/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/03/2021 16:24

Chairs Krishnamoorthi, Maloney, Clyburn, And Lynch Request Detailed Briefing From Biden Administration On U.S. Plan To Provide Vaccines To Combat COVID Surges In India,[...]

SCHAUMBURG, IL - Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy joined Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chairman James E. Clyburn, and Subcommittee on National Security Chairman Stephen F. Lynch in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding U.S. efforts to support the anti-COVID responses of countries facing major outbreaks, including India and Argentina. In particular, the chairs praised the Administration's decision to internationally deploy the nation's supply of up to 60 million AstraZeneca vaccines, which cannot be used in the United States but which have already been approved and distributed in many of the nations facing surging infection rates.

While expressing concern over potential delays in shipping the first round of AstraZeneca vaccines to India due to an additional FDA review, the chairs also requested a briefing from the Biden Administration to address:

  1. The process for selecting countries eligible to receive vaccine doses and the process to determine how many doses they will receive, including the agencies and individuals involved in those processes and their roles;
  2. The timeline for shipping doses to other countries;
  3. Whether the United States expects to have enough supply of vaccines from other manufacturers to inoculate the American public without the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine; and
  4. Whether any legal or contractual barriers present obstacles to shipping doses abroad.

The full letter from the chairs is available here.