Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Thanks Joe, for the AstraZenec­a

US rids second thoughts and gives Lankans the vaccine

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The American Government on Tuesday dismissed its second thoughts over sharing her excess stock of COVID vaccines, including the AstraZenec­a, and decided to include the Lankan people to her list of beneficiar­ies.

In a message issued by the White House, it was made clear the US was not extending her vaccine largess to government­s in return for concession­s but to help the people. US President Joe Biden said: “We are sharing these doses not to secure favours or extract concession­s. We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic, with the power of our example and with our values.

On May 22, two days after Parliament had enacted the controvers­ial Port City Bill which gave legal life to the Chinesebui­lt Port City with the Chinese in occupation as a legal tenant for 99 years, US Embassy Spokespers­on Nancy VanHorn told the media that the US Government was in two minds whether to include Lanka to the beneficiar­ies’ list for a share of the vaccines.

But last Sunday, the SUNDAY PUNCH under the headline Memo to the US: ‘Don’t do the dirty on the Lankan people’ urged

the American Government to transcend internatio­nal power politics at this pandemic hour and help the people of Lanka direct by giving the vaccines, especially the AstraZenec­a to the 600,000 people who, after having taken it as their first dose, had been left stranded without the second.

In a fervent appeal to US President Joe Biden, the SUNDAY PUNCH urged “his Catholic heart that this is the time to forgive, the time to transcend American distaste toward foreign government­s which publicly embrace American foes, and, in the name of humanity, to grant the grace of life-saving 600,000 AstraZenec­a doses from his nation’s stockpile to the Lankan people.”

Thanks, Mr. President. And take a bow. You’ve done the American people proud. Cheers. And make ours not a cocktail but an AstraZenec­a. Neat.

 ??  ?? US PRESIDENT: Biden to the rescue
US PRESIDENT: Biden to the rescue

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