Free the Vaccine for COVID-19

Image from CNN Politics 

200,000 lives. September 22nd marked 200,000 lives documented to be lost to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States alone. Globally, 31,364,008 individuals have been infected and 965,691 lives have been lost to a pandemic that shook the world by surprise. Officials from the Trump Administration, including Donald Trump himself, have been boasting about their mitigation efforts in “preventing” a second wave. Let’s take a look at some of the actions at the U.S. government has taken so far to  help “prevent” a second wave: 

The Pentagon’s Wish List

Earlier this year, Congress passed the $3 trillion CARES Act, which provided economic assistance to families and small businesses while working to preserve jobs and American industries. Among many components, the CARES act provided $1 billion in funding to the Pentagon to procure medical technologies and assist the United States in supplying medical necessities (masks, ventilators, etc) to hospitals and institutions in dire need of supplies: a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, the Pentagon used taxpayer money — 1,000,000,000 in taxpayer dollars that is — to fulfill their own shopping lists, buying everything from Army dress uniform fabric to airplane parts. Not exactly what the United States needed to prevent the second wave, right? Read more about the Pentagon’s wish list here. 

A USPS Plan Butchered

In addition, the United States Postal Service, or USPS, has been a hot topic of conversation for the past few months, especially given their ever-increasing role in the 2020 United States Elections. This past week revealed to us that the USPS had plans to distribute 650 million face masks  in April to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic — you can probably guess what happens next. A potentially life-saving action that would have provided protective gear to hundreds of millions of Americans was blocked by the Trump Administration in order to avoid “creating panic.” 

With top-level officials in the United States government struggling to understand the value of American lives, the race to uncover safe and effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 faces more pressure. Trump may be boasting about vaccine development under his administration’s watch, but the truth is, nobody knows what the data will reveal in upcoming months. Not even Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

So no, Donald Trump, you did not stop the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why activists at Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 and other organizations around the world are fighting to make sure that everyone can access a vaccine to end this pandemic, a pandemic that has taken almost one million lives from us.

Season Kickoff of Free the Vaccine 

This week we had our first meeting with a new wave of volunteers. Participants learned who we are, what we do, and spoke to each other for a few minutes about our excitement for the campaign! Our new group is aged from under 18 to over 65, from 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica, and working in fields from economics, to medicine, to music, and education. In addition, we are happy to announce we have officially partnered with the Arts Corps as one of the leading organizations behind Free the Vaccine for COVID-19!

As always, Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 emphasizes an audience-driven, experiment-informed approach that strives to empower individuals to employ the creative tactics we teach during weekly meetings in their advocacy work. And we walk the walk. While most hour-long zoom calls end in snoozing (or boozing), Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 meetings have a surprising element. The end of our last meeting in July became the Season Finale and participants got one striking cliffhanger in the form of a soap opera developed by our team ending with a “Who Shot J.R.” moment. Mid-way through our first meeting, “The Season Premiere” on Wednesday, attendees saw the soap opera return with Nurse Merith, “S.L.”, Rebecca, an Evil Rebecca, and Dr. James Miles. The mystery continues…

These elements of our meetings – soap operas, awards, game shows – remind our participants that we appreciate the hard work and time they are dedicating to our campaign, and most importantly, that keeping things fun keeps our group’s vitality up, especially when the issues we’re facing are dire.

The Week in Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 Podcast

One of the exciting new developments this season is our introduction of a news podcast available to everyone no matter your involvement in the campaign. This will soon be a public podcast feed, but you can get a sneak preview of the first episode here — stay tuned for more updates!

Vaccine Development 

If you are new to Free the Vaccine, or even if you need a recap, you may be wondering what is happening in the world of vaccine development. While tens of hundreds of scientists around the world have been pooling their resources to develop a vaccine, a few have advanced to Phase 3 trials, in which vaccines are administered to thousands of people and infection rates are compared with a placebo. Updates on the current Phase 3 vaccine trials can be found here. Our job now is to use our skills and training to make sure pharmaceutical greed does not keep these vaccines out of the public’s reach, if they are proven safe and effective.

Our South African comrade Dr Zolelwa Sifumba shares why we need global solidarity and a plan to address Covid-19. Read her Op-Ed in the Scientific American here.

Priti Krishtel, an Ashoka Fellow and one of our advisors here at Free the Vaccine, talks to Manmeet Mehta of Ashoka on who will get access to the vaccine and other life-saving medicines, how those decisions are made, and what changes – culture changes, changes in the U.S. patent system, etc. – are needed to move us to greater health equity. Free the Vaccine participants will be hearing more from Priti directly soon. You can follow on twitter at @pritikrishtel and @IMAKGlobal

An exhibit of the work created in the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign is listed on the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries.

The Association of Academic Museums and Galleries is the leading educational and professional organization for academic museums, galleries, and collections. In recognition of the unique opportunities and challenges of its constituents, the AAMG establishes and supports best practices, educational activities and professional development that enable its member organizations to fulfill their educational missions.

The AAMG lists Creativity vs. COVID: Ending the Pandemic for Good for exhibition at Universities across the country.

Exhibition Overview:

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at universities and other publicly-funded institutions have been working to develop tests, treatments, and vaccines to better protect us and ease the public health crisis.

An international collective of university students, artists, and activists has also been working to make sure those treatments are available to everyone, everywhere, not just those with the ability to pay. Guaranteeing this access is crucial for ending the pandemic. And, from an ethical standpoint, it’s simply the right thing to do.

This innovative exhibition shares compelling creative work from the Free the Vaccine for Covid-19 campaign – from poster designs to viral parody music videos. In doing so, it introduces audiences to key issues that limit access to medicine and provides robust methods anyone can use to advocate for change from anywhere, especially at this time of social distancing.

Format: Interactive virtual exhibit with optional physical components.

Exhibition Fee: None.

Available beginning Fall 2020.

Ideal for university communities.

• Higher education is home to essential COVID research and development.
• Interdisciplinary content will resonate with students, faculty, and staff across campus: from the fine arts department to public health programs to scientific research labs.
• Connects audiences with current events and fresh creative work, even if gallery spaces are restricted.

Flexible format and program options.

• Online exhibition with optional physical components that you can print yourself.
• For a limited number of venues, we’ll arrange to ship a set of materials.
• Host a public conversation (virtual or face to face) that brings together university stakeholders to discuss access to COVID medicine, including: a student, a faculty member, and a representative from the university’s technology transfer office. Free the Vaccine team will help coordinate and facilitate as needed.