Rowley: Caricom to seek US help for vaccines

THE Prime Minister said Caricom will ask the United States if it can share any of its stock of covid19 vaccines with the region.

Dr Rowley, who is also Caricom chairman, made these disclosures at a virtual news conference at the end of the 32nd Inter-Sessional Caricom Heads of Government meeting on Thursday.

He added that Caricom would seek to obtain additional vaccines from India and the African Union and ask any of its member states who acquire vaccines to share some of them with those states which had been unable to do so.

Rowley said Caricom would approach the Biden Administration for help to access vaccines for the region.

"Yes, A very specific decision has been taken for that to happen. We also agreed that we shouldn't just aim to do that contact at the level of the presidency but at other levels of the (US) Congress."

Reiterating Caricom's gratitude to India for its donation of 170,000 doses of vaccine to two of its members ( Barbados - 100,000 and Dominica - 70,000), Rowley said, "In attempting to find, access ways to either receive donations or purchase from manufacturers, the only thing that has happened along those lines is that we got some commitments to some (Caricom) territories from India, to add some more to the 170,000 doses."

He also disclosed, "We agreed that whoever (Caricom country) gets vaccines, will share as much as they are able to those who do not have because it appears as though, for a while, we would not be able to access vaccines as we anticipated."

Saying the initial tranche of vaccine doses from Covax will provide "a small part of our needs," Rowley said Caricom leaders were briefed by Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representatives about what PAHO was doing to increase the supply of vaccines through Covax, which could help Caricom to receive additional tranches throughout the course of the year to satisfy the regional population.

He added that, contrary to claims from some quarters, there was never an agreement for India to provide Caricom with 500,000 doses of vaccine.

Caricom, he continued, will continue its efforts to purchase additional doses of vaccines through the African Union.

"We have an arrangement where we have all agreed to put in a request for what we can get from them."

Rowley also said Caricom would not acquire any covid19 vaccines from any source that had not been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). He said Caricom would repeat its call to the WHO for "an international response" to the complaints of Caricom and similar nations about accessing vaccines.

Rowley said, "We will be issuing a statement on our concern and our dissatisfaction with the way that we have been literally squeezed out of access of vaccines."

He also said some countries who have been able to access more of the vaccines have told Caricom "we can sell you a small amount but only if your order is up to a certain size." Rowley said one of the conditions under which these countries were prepared to sell vaccines to anyone "that it has to be in a confidential arrangement, meaning that we are not going to expose what we have been charged for it."

He explained, "What we have discovered in that arrangement is that different people can be charged hugely different prices and (are) required by contract to keep those prices confidential."

Rowley lamented "that is the environment in which the vaccine access and purchase is now, what we are facing now."