The Centre’s decision to resume vaccine exports from October appears timed to the Covid virtual summit being convened by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday on the margins of the UN General Assembly and the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington and New York later this week.
“This meeting is about expanding and enhancing our shared efforts to defeat Covid-19,’’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki had said on September 17 while announcing the summit. Increasing vaccine access is top on the agenda, and there is an expectation that India will live up to its reputation of being the “pharmacy of the world”.
Psaki had said: “We will be asking participants to commit to a higher level of ambition across four themes’’, first of which is to “vaccinate the world by enhancing equitable access to vaccines and getting shots in arms’’.
Last week, the Virginia-based American news website Axios had reported that “the Biden administration is quietly pressuring India to restart vaccine exports with plans to offer a higher-profile role for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an upcoming Covid-19 global summit in New York if he agrees to release vaccines soon.…’’