US Ambassador: No one is safe until everyone is safe

“No one is safe until everyone is safe”, was the message of US Ambassador to Barbados, Linda Taglialatela, as she participated in the handover of the Pfizer vaccine donation to the Barbados Government on Friday.

The U.S. Government donated 70,200 doses of the vaccine, and Taglialatela stressed the importance of countries working together to stop the spread of COVID-19.

She said all of the vaccines donated by the U.S. Government were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization.

“These are the same vaccines that are available to Americans and are the same doses that are being shared across the globe.  We know Barbados takes this pandemic seriously, and we know that vaccines are the fastest way to end it.  Yes, I live in the real world, and I know that there will be some who will seek to discredit and confuse. Faceless online accounts who spread mis[information] and disinformation.

“But the fact is – too many Barbadians, both on this island and in the United States, have died from COVID-19.  Our cooperation today says that we choose science, facts, transparency and saving lives,” the Ambassador emphasised.

Taglialatela revealed that since the beginning of the pandemic, the United States had provided more than $4 million in COVID-19 response to the Eastern Caribbean.  She added that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent in Barbados providing PPEs, hygiene supplies, and contact tracing training and equipment.

She noted that Barbados and the US were partners and neighbours and remained the closest of friends.

Nearly 200,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine have been donated to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean by the U.S. Government, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s global vaccine sharing framework.  The delivery of the vaccines began on Thursday, August 12.