The ‘third border’ Caribbean appeals to U.S. to share vaccines
A number of Caribbean island nations made a plea to the United States not to neglect its “third border” by sharing its mounting supply of COVID-19 vaccines with the region.
According to them, the US should help the region as it has said it would with other border neighbors, Mexico and Canada.
Setting aside Cuba, who’s developing their own vaccines, the other independent island states of the Caribbean archipelago have criticized unfair global access to inoculations. As a result, countries like them without the financial or political know-how to seal deals have been hurting.
In spite of the COVAX vaccine-sharing mechanism and donations from India, these nations have only received a slim amount of shots, while neighboring Caribbean islands that are still territories of former colonial powers have already started mass vaccination campaigns.
As economies that are tourist-dependent, the Caribbean nations are among those that have been most devastated by the pandemic. On the other hand, several countries including Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda have been experiencing a severe rise in COVID-19 cases. In turn, the already debt-laden region has no other choice but to take on new loans.
Reuters has reported that Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and also head of the CARICOM Caribbean bloc, has been said to have written to U.S. President Joe Biden imploring the provision of WHO-approved vaccines for the region.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Through loan deals made with Mexico and Canada, the United States plans to send approximately 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to the two countries, the White House recently stated.
With a stock of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that has yet to be authorized for distribution and use in the U.S., the Biden administration has come under pressure to share the vaccines to countries around the world that already have approval.
AstraZeneca, having made millions of doses in a U.S. facility, said it would have 30 million shots ready at the beginning of April.