Rev. Jackson, Indian Leaders appeal for more COVID-19 doses as deaths continue to soar in India

Rev. Jackson, Indian Leaders appeal for more COVID-19 doses as deaths continue to soar in India (Chicago, IL) – Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is holding a press conference 10 a.m. (PT), 12 noon (CT), Friday, June 18^th, at the Hilton Hotel, San Francisco Financial District, 750 Kearney St. San Francisco, to welcome President Biden’s efforts to send vaccines overseas and to urge the Biden administration to expedite vaccines to India.

“We thank President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for leading the call for more vaccine doses to be sent abroad,” said Rev. Jackson. “The number of COVID-19 cases in India will spill into the rest

Rev. Jackson and Indian leaders including Dr. Vijay G. Prabhakar, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Global Ambassador and chairman of the American Association of Multi Ethnic Physicians, USA, thanked President Biden for pledging to send 2 million doses of vaccines to India of the 6 million he promised to send abroad.

“We thanked Rev. Jackson for making a personal appeal on our behalf to President Biden for more vaccines when he was in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” said Dr. Prabhakar. “We thank Rev. Jackson for appealing to President Biden to remove the Defense Production Act ratings on three U.S. vaccine manufacturers which would ease the supply of raw materials to vaccine manufacturers in India.”

Dr. Prabhakar also thanked Rev. Jackson for advocating for vaccine intellectual property waivers.

The call by Rev. Jackson and Indian leaders comes at a time when there have been 1.2 million Indians who have died of the Coronavirus, according to Dr. Bhrhmar Mukherjee, professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. That figure is of May 15^th. “More doses are needed,” said Rev. Jackson.

Agreeing, Sathya Padmanabhan, a 16-year-old junior at the Basis Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona, and the World Federation of Tamil Youth’s USA Student Wing Secretary also made an appeal for more doses for India.

With more than 33, 498,468 COVID-19 cases in India, Padmanabhan, who is also founder of BRILLIANAIRE,” a non-profit organization, asked Biden to send at least 10 million more doses to India.

Neil Khot, national chair of Indian American Business Coalition, USA, said the U.S. and India have both been tested during this pandemic, and we are heartened to see the U.S. and the diaspora’s robust response to support India during its dire COVID-19 second wave.

“As strong proponents of a close U.S.-India relationship, we are hopeful that the Biden-Harris administration will continue to assist India during its time of need. As Vice President Harris has stated, the diaspora will continue to serve as a bridge between our two countries,” said Khot.

M. Rangaswami, founder/chairman of Indiaspora, a non-profit network of global Indian origin leaders and CEO of Soft Kind, Inc., Silicon Valley, thanked Rev. Jackson for his ”relentless efforts to aid India and for hosting this press conference during his current visit to San Francisco to affirm African American and Asian American/Pacific Islander solidarity.”

“There is no doubt our diverse communities are stronger when we stand together,” said Rangaswami who has helped to raise $6 million for India’s COVID relief through different initiatives including Indiaspora’s Chalo Give India campaign.

While thanking Biden for promising to send 2 million doses of the vaccine to India, Rangaswami said the situation still remains dire.

He said by sending vaccines through COVAX as well as coming directly to the aid of India by sending vaccine raw materials and advocating for vaccine intellectual property waivers, “our world as a whole is a better place. We are all in this together and as long as India is not vaccinated, our work is not done,” said Rangaswami.

Dr. Twin Green, Ambassador, Citizens action Alliance For Behavioral Health, USA & CEO, The Link & Option Center, South Holland, Illinois, offered Telepsychiatry services through Dr. Cloud Electronic Health Systems to rural America and India to combat the challenges of the mental health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Leveraging digital technology to meet the overburdened mental health providers is the need of the hour,” Dr. Green said.