National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology
Hanoi, Vietnam

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, I — first of all, I want to thank the Vietnamese — your Office of Health and Hygiene that’s, obviously, a lot of work to do.  And as I’ve mentioned, we as the United States are very thankful to the Vietnamese for coming through when we needed support early on in the pandemic; I think was about April of 2020.  We needed help with PPEs, and Vietnam sent them. 

We have already donated 5 million, and this now is a delivery of an additional 1 million, for 6 million doses of the vaccine.  This is probably one of the — if not the number one issue, in terms of a challenge facing Vietnam right now.  

And this donation, and it is a donation — there are no strings attached; it is free — is an expression of America’s support to Vietnam and the Vietnamese people.  And this is on top of the 500 million doses of vaccines that President Biden has pledged that we will send around the world.  This is, obviously, what is morally right to do.  And it is, obviously, also a public health issue, and really speaks to the importance of the relationships and the partnerships that we have as Americans around the world when it comes to dealing with this crisis, which is the global health crisis.

So, we’re very proud to see that this delivery has made it here and will get into the arms of the Vietnamese people.