PM: US can help Covax get access to vaccines

THE Prime Minister said the United States can help ensure there is equity of access to covid19 vaccines worldwide, through the Covax facility.

Dr Rowley, who is currently Caricom chairman, made this point during a virtual interview with the Atlantic Council on Friday. At a news conference on Thursday after the conclusion of the 32nd Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government, Rowley said Caricom will approach the US for assistance in acquiring additional vaccines.

He praised US President Joe Biden's pledge of US$4 billion to Covax over the next two years. But Rowley observed, "What the US could do along with other major influential countries, is to ensure that whatever (vaccine) is available in whatever volume, that some of that gets to the Covax so that the Covax mechanism can play its role in ensuring that the small and medium income countries will have (access to vaccines)."

Rowley lamented, "The larger and more powerful countries with more influential politics and fatter wallets are literally dominating the supply and distribution of what vaccines are available." Declaring that covid19 cannot be defeated politically or financially, Rowley said, "No one is safe unless everyone is safe." He added, "If you genuinely believe that, then everyone should have access to some vaccines."

Rowley warned that if the current inequity of vaccine distribution continues "we run the very grave danger that the virus could do us a real return to damage, by variants developing in countries like ours and others which have not been vaccinated."

He opined it would be the joke of the century " if strong, wealthy countries try to inoculate themselves, discover that those who they ignored were the Petri dish where variants occurred and those variants make the vaccination that was done useless, and we have to go and look for new vaccines again."

Rowley argued that covid19 must be dealt with "across all nations" to deny it the chance to mutate and pose greater threats to the global population. He suggested the US view the Caribbean as an extension of itself south from Key West, Florida. With covid19 being the first engagement between Caricom and the Biden administration, Rowley said for the purposes of covid19, Caricom and the US are one and the same.

US congressman Gregory Meeks told Rowley, "Congress looks forward being a part and helping your country and the broader Caricom region that you represent, to recover from the covid19 pandemic."

Meeks, who is also chairman of the US House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee, added, "As regional neighbours, I strongly believe that working together, we can open a new chapter in US-Caribbean relations. My door is always open to you and all your Caricom colleagues."

Citing the continued strong US-Caricom ties, Rowley said US Vice President Kamala Harris, former attorney general Eric Holder and former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff General Colin Powell were but a few examples of people of Caribbean heritage who have contributed to the US' development.