Senators call on manufacturers to step up vaccination efforts in other countries

US Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and nine other senators called on Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna to increase COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries to help tackle the global disparities in accessing the vaccine.

This follows a bipartisan letter that Schatz and Brown led in October calling on President Biden to provide more US leadership and step up efforts to increase global vaccine access to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Vaccines represent the world’s best hope at containing the COVID-19 pandemic, but our goals for effectively responding to the pandemic will remain out of reach unless we successfully ramp up our global vaccination effort and get more shots in arms as quickly as possible,” the senators wrote.

US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also joined the letter.

The full text of the letters is available here: Letter to Johnson & Johnson | Letter to Pfizer | Letter to Moderna