Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel concerning the pharmaceutical company’s recently announced relationship with China. This agreement would allow the communist regime to “research and manufacture new mRNA medicines,” as well as grant the country exclusive access to the intellectual property surrounding said medicines.
Considering the reports alleging that COVID-19 originated in a government-sponsored Chinese lab, Sen. Rubio believes this new arrangement between Moderna and China could pose national security and global public health concerns.
Sen. Rubio’s letter addresses these concerns, including whether the pharmaceutical company will protect technology “funded by American taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars.”
“Moderna has been the recipient of billions of American taxpayer dollars to research and provide vaccines to Americans to combat COVID-19. Mountains of circumstantial evidence show that the CCP, due to its negligence and secretiveness, is responsible for the start and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Rubio.
He would go on to mention, “To this day, Beijing still has not approved Moderna, Pfizer, or any other non-Chinese vaccine for use in the PRC, which puts ordinary Chinese citizens, and the world, at risk to future COVID variants. Put simply, Beijing should not have access to this American taxpayer invested and hard-earned technology.”
Moreover, the Florida Senator reinforced the idea that with this partnership, vaccines and medicines produced in China will only be available for use in China, and would be “a betrayal of the American taxpayers.”
“Significantly, under this agreement with the PRC, any vaccines developed in the PRC to treat new diseases would only be for use in the PRC. Allowing the PRC to monopolize the benefits of research and production that Moderna performs on Chinese soil is a betrayal of the American taxpayers whose hard-earned dollars made this technology possible,” penned Rubio.
In congruence with this stance against Moderna and China, Senator Rubio called for President Joe Biden (D) and his administration to combat the Chinese-Iranian oil partnership through the use of Executive Order 13846, which would expand sanctions on those who store Iranian oil. This would include ship-to-ship oil transfer operators, port-to-port operators, and refineries, and even certain individuals and entities.
