The devastation in India could have been avoided had the TRIPS waiver been passed already. We will continue to see destruction and loss of life on a global scale if we do not make it clear to the Biden Administration that they need to support the TRIPS waiver.
Many Representatives throughout the country have come out in support of the TRIPS Waiver. We need Representatives Nanette Barragán and Linda Sanchez to sign on to an important letter circulating among House Democrats in support of the TRIPS waiver. They need to hear that people all over the country want them to support the TRIPS waiver.
Please call both their DC offices and in district offices Monday, May 3, and follow the script below.
Contact
Rep. Nanette Barragán
DC Office: 202-225-8220
District Office: 310-831-1799
Rep. Linda Sanchez
DC Office: 202-225-6676
District Office: 562-860-5050
Script
Leave a voice message if no one picks up
Hi, my name is <NAME>,
I’m calling to urge Representative <CONGRESSPERSON> to sign onto the Schakowsky, Blumenauer and DeLauro letter in support of the TRIPS Waiver.
This waiver is critical in the global fight against the pandemic, and it is important that your boss signs this letter today.
<You will likely be asked for your name and contact information>
Come talk with leaders in our campaign about artistic activism for global vaccine equity, actions and events coming soon, and see how you can support the campaign for global COVID-19 vaccine equity.
April is turning out to be a BIG month for taking action and putting pressure on big pharma and governments (especially rich country governments) in our call for a People’s Vaccine!
What’s happening in April?
Pharma shareholder meetings and more meetings of the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Council to discuss waiver of COVID-19 vaccine monopolies give us an opportunity to ramp up pressure:
April 22 – Informal WTO TRIPS Council meeting
April 22 – J&J and Pfizer annual shareholder meetings
April 30 – Formal WTO TRIPS Council meeting
April 30 – AstraZeneca virtual shareholder event including Q&A w/CEO
May 5-6 – WTO General Council meeting
May 11 – AstraZeneca annual general meeting (closed-door)
What actions are being planned?
Actions on the ground
People’s Vaccine Alliance partners are organizing actions at pharma headquarters and other key locations. Sign up to stay up to date as plans come together. You can contact Emily Sanderson with any questions about US actions or if you want to organize an action where you are.
May 11: London, outside of AstraZeneca shareholder meeting
Click the location on the map for more details about the actions.
Actions online
April 21 – April 30 (and beyond) Use the People’s Vaccine online tool to send a message to Biden and big pharma that they must work together to make vaccines available for everyone, everywhere.
April 21 – April 30 (and beyond) – Jonas Salk Around the World Bring Jonas Salk and his scientific and philosophical spirit to as many places as possible to remind people of a role model who prioritized people’s well-being over profit.
Join over 1.5 million people, including Nobel laureates, scientists, public figures and citizens from all corners of the globe, to demand a People’s Vaccine!
This European Citizens’ Initiative calls on the European Commission to do everything in its power to make COVID-19 vaccines and treatments a global public good.
April 21 – Big Pharma: Your profits, our lives. Join this public meeting bringing together survivors, healthcare workers and supporters to build power between stakeholders.
April 21 – “Ask a CEO” Twitterstorm As shareholder meetings approach, we ask the CEOs of Big Pharma whether they will commit to (or why not?) sharing the science, tech and know how around their vaccines, to ensure everyone, everywhere can be vaccinated. Use the tool below to join the twitterstorm and check out #AskTheCEO on Twitter.
April 23 – Free the Vaccine Open Meeting #2 Join Free the Vaccine for an update on actions, hear from People’s Vaccine Alliance leaders, and see how you can support the continued actions.
April 29 – Mobilising support for patent law reform locally and internationally An online discussion on overcoming barriers to medicines, vaccines, and medical tools for cancer, diabetes, HIV and TB, as well as COVID-19. This is even more important as the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS Council meets on 30 April to discuss the proposal to waive patents at the WTO by South Africa and India.
May 20 – Free the Vaccine Open Meeting #3 Join Free the Vaccine for an update on actions, hear from People’s Vaccine Alliance leaders, and see how you can support the continued actions.
Come talk with leaders in our campaign about artistic activism for global vaccine equity, actions and events coming soon, and see how you can support the campaign for global COVID-19 vaccine equity.
OUR BEST CHANCE OF ENDING THIS PANDEMIC is to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to Covid-19 vaccines. But pharmaceutical monopolies are restricting supply and rich governments have hoarded doses, leaving countries in the global south waiting up to 2023 for widespread vaccination. This will lead to even more unnecessary loss of lives and allow the virus to spread and mutate, which will threaten everyone. No one is safe until everyone is safe.
On March 10, on the eve of the one year anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 a pandemic by the World Health Organization, we will rally online to call out the injustice of vaccine apartheid and get inspired for action on March 11!
Join us online at 9:30am ET AND at 9:30pm ET.
**The rally is free, but please register to receive info on how to join.
This is a People’s Vaccine Alliance event supported by Global Justice Now, UNAIDS, Club de Madrid, Frontline AIDS, ActionAid International, STOPAIDS, Public Services International (PSI), African Alliance, Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group, Oxfam America, European Citizens’ Initiative Right to Cure, Just Treatment, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and Students for Global Health.
Register now!
This form is currently closed for submissions.
On March 11, one year since the WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic, we are mobilizing people from around the world to raise a public outcry at this injustice. Check here for actions near you and online.
Write to your member of Congress In the US, ask your member of Congress to join a letter from Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL) urging the Biden administration to support a waiver of COVID-19 patent monopolies. Send your letter
People’s Vaccine action tools! Print a poster, tweet your representative…you can use one of these tools to demand vaccine equity wherever you are. Join the action
On social media, use a mask filter to tell your friends why you support a Peoples Vaccine! FacebookInstagram
On the ground
Join an action if you’re near one of these cities!
Our best chance of ending this pandemic is to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. But pharmaceutical monopolies are restricting supply, leaving countries in the global south waiting up to 2023 for widespread vaccination. This will lead to even more unnecessary loss of lives and allow the virus to spread and mutate, which will threaten everyone as no one is safe until everyone is safe.
We cannot stay silent in the face of vaccine apartheid.
On 11 March, one year since the WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic, we are mobilising people from around the world to raise a public outcry at this injustice.
On March 11 we will be demanding that:
Pharmaceutical companies openly share their technological know-how to make their vaccines. They can do this through joining the World Health Organsiation Covid-19 Technology and Access Pool (C-TAP).
Governments suspend patent rules at the World Trade Organisation on Covid19 vaccines and health technologies during the pandemic.
This will help break Big Pharma monopolies and increase supplies so there are enough doses for everyone, everywhere.
Join in the Global Day of Action to ramp up the pressure for a #PeoplesVaccine, not a profit vaccine.
On December 4th and 9th, 2020, several organizations are collaborating to host the event: Vaccine Allocation and Social Justice. Open to all, the purpose of the event is to share concrete steps on how to improve the chances of equitable vaccine allocation. The event will include multiple sessions which different focuses, including challenges in distribution, legal ways of allocating vaccines equitably, and implementing equity.
“A particular focus is on ensuring that the needs of vulnerable groups whose communities often experienced—and experience—structural racism and other forms of systemic injustice are central, rather than, as too often in the past, peripheral.”
The participating hosts include Ariadne Labs, Boston College, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the International Society for Priorities in Health, MIT Economics, the O’Neill Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania.
More information and registration for this virtual event can be found here.
What do you get when you put lab coats with a message, 70’s fashion, and brightly-colored formal attire in a room with activists pushing for a People’s Vaccine? A Funk Rally!
Save The Date: October 21st
On October 21st, join us and our allies in Washington D.C. for our first Funk Rally for a COVID-19 Vaccine. The rally will start around 12:30pm EST at 100 Maryland Avenue SW, and end around 4:30pm EST across from the African American History Museum. Join us for a short march to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to demand that all people have access to a tested, safe, and effective COVID-19 vaccine. See more information in the flyer above.
The Event
The event will begin with a Moment of Silence and Opening Procession to honor the lives lost to COVID-19 this year. The event will also include a Funk Rally down Independence Avenue. Our goal is to build momentum. We will end with closing remarks at the Washington Monument and a Global Dance Circle! We are rallying to celebrate life and encourage our institutions to do better and provide a People’s Vaccine. Think bright colors — come in your semi-formal, disco, or the fanciest party attire that you can find.
Last but not least — bring your dancing skills, your friends and family, and your masks!
Alliance for Health Policy Event: COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment
As we continue to see news outlets infiltrated with concerns and progress regarding a COVID-19 vaccine, the lack of transparency about access becomes more prominent. If you are interested in gaining more insight into vaccine accessibility and potential schemes for vaccine deployment, the Alliance for Health Policy is holding an event on September 30th, 2020. Panelists will be discussing the manufacturing, distribution, delivery, and coverage techniques that would allow for the United States to have nationwide COVID-19 vaccine access. For those interested in attending, more information and a registration link can be found here.
The event features four members: Richard Hughes, Esther Krofah, Nicolette Louissaint, and Reed Tuckson. Hughes is the Managing Director and Vaccines and Preventive Services Leader at Avalere Health; Krofah is the Executive Director of FasterCures; Louissaint is the Executive Director of Healthcare Ready, and Reed Tuckson is the Managing Director for Tuckson is the Board Chair for the Alliance for Health Policy.
Season 2 Week 2 Podcast for Free the Vaccine for COVID-19
For those who are unaware, the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 Campaign recently launched a weekly News Podcast to update you on what’s happening in the world of the vaccine. You can access the latest episode for Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 week 2 here! (We’ll have an official podcast feed up soon.)
Moderna recently announced that taxpayer money funds 100% of its work to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to licensure, yet they still plan to rake in billions charging the highest price yet announced for a potential vaccine. It was also recently discovered that the U.S. government may co-own their vaccine candidate making this innovation truly the People’s Vaccine, and not another private commodity to be price gouged at will.
Join FreeTheVaccine and allies on Friday, August 28th at 2PM at the Kendall Square MBTA Station and on FTV_Boston’s FaceBook live to demand the following:
Moderna must make the Open Covid Pledge and commit to making all relevant Intellectual Property, clinical trial data, and any other essential manufacturing steps available for global generic production.
Moderna must price their vaccine at cost to maximize access and affordability.
If Moderna doesn’t enact these demands, we also call on the U.S. Government to enact march in rights to force non-exclusive licensing of all relevant IP to drive global generic production.
The US Government and Moderna must work together to ensure the vaccine is free at the point of sale for individuals everywhere.
Fair and affordable pricing of the COVID-19 vaccines and drugs currently under development has the potential to save millions of lives. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY PAID ONCE for the research and development of these products.
If its new vaccine proves to be safe and effective, Moderna will have a choice to make. They can prioritize the interests of shareholders and executives thus furthering the destructive nature of this virus—or lead the way in fighting the defining health crisis of our generation.
For more information, reach out to the Boston Regional Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 Organizers at bostonfreedomvaccine@gmail.com.
