US to rush vaccine raw materials, anti-Covid supplies to India

In a break from the America First policy President Joe Bidens administration is working round the clock to immediately send India raw material needed for making Covishield and other products needed in the fight against the COVID19 surge overtaking the nation according to National Security Adviser Jake SullivanRecalling the assistance sent by India to the US in the early phase of the pandemic last year he told Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in a phone call on Sunday that the United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplie Sullivans Spokesperson Emily Horne saidSullivan told Doval that Washington also is pursuing options to provide oxygen generation and related supplies on an urgent basis she said in a readout of their conversationThe US will also send India antiCOVID supplies like test kits ventilators medications and personal protective equipment used by frontline workersThe National Defence Production Act invoked by former President Donald Trump banned the export of vaccine raw materials and some other COVIDrelated products and have continued under BidenThe decision to lift the embargo for India on the export of vaccine raw materials comes after nearly two weeks of requests from Adar Poonawalla the CEO of vaccinemaker Serum Institute of India and others in IndiaBut as recently as Friday various US government spokespersons would not say if the Biden administration would lift the embargoState Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that the first obligation was to the American people and added Its in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinatedBut as calls grew for helping India Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a hint on Saturday that India may get the material to fight the pandemic surgeHe tweeted We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and Indias health care heroesHorne said in the readout Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic the United States is determined to help India in its time of needAfter some physicians had said that hydroxychloroquine HCQ could be a treatment for COVID19 last April Trump had personally asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift his ban on its exports and supply the drug to the USIndia sent about 50 million doses of HCQ to the US and thanking Modi Trump said We will remember itNow the next presidents administration is remembering it even though the emergency use authorisation for HCQs in hospital settings in the US was withdrawn and a huge cache of it sits unused while Modis decision was criticised in IndiaIndia has been sharing its vaccine production with countries around the world sending nearly 65 million doses to 86 countriesHorne said Sullivan affirmed Americas solidarity with India the two countries with the greatest number of COVID19 cases in the world and they both resolved that India and the United States will continue to fight the global COVID19 pandemic togetherThe readout listing what India will receive said The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will immediately be made available for India To help treat COVID19 patients and protect frontline health workers in India the United States has identified supplies of therapeutics rapid diagnostic test kits ventilators and personal protective equipment PPE that will immediately be made available for IndiaThe US is also deploying an expert team of public health advisors from the Center for Disease Control CDC and USAID to work with the embassy in Delhi Indias Health Ministry and Indias Epidemic Intelligence Service the readout saidUSAID which is the international assistance arm of the US will also quickly work with CDC to support and fasttrack the mobilization of emergency resources available to India through the Global Fund it said The Global Fund is an international collaboration to fight epidemics and serious diseasesLooking ahead the readout said The US Development Finance Corporation DFC is funding a substantial expansion of manufacturing capability for BioE Biological E the vaccine manufacturer in India enabling BioE to ramp up to produce at least one billion doses of COVID19 vaccines by the end of 2022Biological E a Hyderabadbased company is set to conduct Phase 3 trials for a vaccine developed by Baylor University and Dynavax Technologies Corporation in the USAt the March summit of Quad Biden and Modi along with Prime Ministers Yoshihide Suga of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia agreed on a joint plan to help other countries with vaccines that would be made in India with US and Japanese finance and distributed using Australian logisticsDemocratic members of the House of Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna asked Biden to open the spigot on the excess vaccines for India but from the readout of the SullivanDoval meeting it did not appear that as yet there was an agreement on the vaccinesKrishnamoorthi pointed out that the US had about 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which is distributed in India under the Covishield brand name and had begun supplying some of it to Canada and the USHe said that he would strongly call on the Biden Administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to countries hardesthit by the spread of COVID19 including India Argentina and potentially othersI applaud the Biden Administrations decision to put people over profits Khanna said welcoming the decision to give India the raw materials and other supplies and added The Biden Administration can still do more like give India our stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccines that wont be used in the USBidens chief adviser on the COVID19 pandemic Anthony Fauci said on a TV programme on Sunday that sending vaccines to India was under considerationThis 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