|
 U.S. President Joe Biden earlier on Thursday said he was setting a
new goal of administering 200 million doses in his first 100 days in
office, after an initial goal of 100 million doses was met ahead of
schedule.
"The distribution of vaccines has been pretty much unequal and we
have countries that have bought vaccines but they haven't been able
to receive not even one (dose)," Duque said during a virtual event
hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank and attended by U.S.
Senators Ben Cardin and Roy Blunt.
Some countries have bought up to six times what they need for their
populations, Duque added, without specifying which countries he was
referring to.
Because the United States is a leader in vaccine production, helping
to supply shots could provide it with an important diplomatic tool,
Duque said.
"I think it's also a very important instrument of soft diplomacy
that can be very well used with other countries," he said. "I
definitely think that the U.S. can certainly become a leader in the
hemisphere to help the countries that have not received vaccines."
Lack of vaccines could lead to social unrest, Duque said. Blunt, a
Missouri Republican, agreed.
[to top of second column] |
"It is destabilizing when people feel like somehow they don't have
fair access to the vaccine," Blunt said. "And we need to do our best
to be sure that we're assisting our friends." "We
don't want other countries who don't have the friendly intentions
that we have coming in and providing vaccines," he said.
The United States last week agreed to loan about 4 million doses of
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine it has not yet approved to Mexico and
Canada.
Colombia has made agreements for 66.5 million doses of coronavirus
vaccines and administered nearly 1.4 million doses.
The government hopes to reach 3 million administered doses by April
17, Duque said.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content
 |
