Letter to Alex Azar, Secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services - In Response to Trump Administration Evasiveness, Sanders Demands Answers on Ensuring Free, Universal Access to COVID-19 Vaccine

Letter

Dear Secretary Azar:
At Tuesday's HELP Committee hearing, I asked FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Health
and Human Services Assistant Secretary Brett Giroir a question: When a COVID-19 vaccine is
approved will it be made available to everyone in America without cost?
Unfortunately, they were unable to respond with a simple yes or no answer. I believe that the
American people know what the answer to that question should be, and that is YES.
Making sure that a future COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to all without cost is not only the
right thing to do from a moral perspective, it is also good public policy. Public health officials
all agree that we will not truly overcome this horrific pandemic until a vaccine is made available
to everyone.
With over 80,000 COVID-19 deaths already, and more to come in the future, the vaccine must
be made available to every man, woman and child without cost. Nobody in America should
unnecessarily die from the virus because they cannot afford a vaccine.
Today, I am writing to ask you the same question that I asked at the HELP hearing: Will the
Administration guarantee that once a vaccine is approved by the FDA it will be made available
to everyone in this country free of charge?
In my view, it would be morally unacceptable to allow the pharmaceutical industry to use this
pandemic as another opportunity to make huge profits on the backs of people who can least
afford it. The American people should not be forced to pay obscene prices for a vaccine that is
needed to keep them alive.
I look forward to hearing from you on this vitally important issue as soon as possible.
Sincerely,

Source