India-US partnership critical to vaccinating world against Covid: Envoy Sandhu

Washington, February 23

The partnership between India and the US in the health care sector is critical to vaccinating the world against the coronavirus, India’s Ambassador here Taranjit Singh Sandhu said.

Observing that vaccinating the world must be the priority strategy against the Covid pandemic, Sandhu on Tuesday said the world’s map of vaccinations presents a story of disparities with the under-developed countries, including those in Africa, lagging at 10 per cent or below.

Sandhu was speaking at a virtual roundtable on ‘Vaccine for All’ during which eminent participants including Bill Gates discussed how safe, affordable and reliable vaccines can be delivered to all.

In addition to Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; other eminent participants to the roundtable were Dr VK Paul, member of Niti Aayog and Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO); Professor Peter Jay Hotez, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Congressman Dwight Evans, Member Ways & Means Committee and Subcommittee on Health.

“Lots of lessons learnt during this pandemic to inform future R&D (research and development) and vaccine development for all infectious diseases. Appreciate having been part of these discussions,” Swaminathan said.

In his welcome address, Sandhu said that in the process of vaccination for all, India-US health care partnership is critical for three reasons.

First, there has been robust and long-standing collaboration between India and the US in the health sector including in vaccines. The bilateral Vaccine Action Programme (VAP) resulted in development of ROTAVAC – vaccine against Rotavirus.

This vaccine developed by an Indian company (Bharat Biotech) significantly brought down the costs. The established linkages between Indian and US institutions, and researchers augur well in the fight against Covid, he said.

Second, the convergences between India and the US are strong.

“I only need to point you to the intensive engagements last year at bilateral, Quad and multilateral levels. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s visit to the US, Bilateral Summit with President (Joe) Biden and the Quad Summit were significant, substantive and comprehensive. The Quad Vaccines Initiative is on track to roll out this year on its promise of 1 billion J & J vaccines manufactured by India’s Biological E,” Sandhu said.

And finally, India and the US have unique synergies that can be leveraged, he noted.