The HHS report detailed the work of the US Office of Global Affairs (OGA) in a section of the report titled “Combatting malign influences in the Americas.” The report says the OGA used “diplomatic relations” to counter influence in the Americas from states like Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia.
“Examples include using OGA’s Health Attaché office to persuade Brazil to reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine,” the report reads. The OGA also pressured Panama not to accept the help of Cuban doctors and offered CDC assistance instead.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov discussed the pressure countries were under not to buy the Sputnik V vaccine, although he did not mention the US by name. “The scale of pressure in many countries is unprecedented, harsh, stripped of any diplomatic subtlety and so on,” he said.