Free the Vaccine for COVID-19

Winnnie Byanyima joined the Global Rally for a People’s Vaccine delivering a powerful demand for justice and an inspiring call to action for activists across the globe to continue to build people power and pressure their governments in the fight for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

We don’t have time to wait. Waiting helps the virus spread, to mutate, to become even more dangerous. The World Health Organization has told the world. The new head of the World Trade Organization has told the world. The time is now! We’re not asking for charity. We are demanding justice.

Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS

At the People’s Vaccine Alliance’s Global Rally for a People’s Vaccine Heidi Chow, campaigner for Global Justice Now, spoke about the injustice of vaccine apartheid and the need for governments to support waiving patent monopolies that pharmaceutical corporations have through rules at the World Trade Organization.

On the anniversary of the pandemic, we cannot stay silent in the face of vaccine apartheid. If this happened within a country where the richest citizens were vaccinated first and everyone else had to wait years for the vaccine, there would be a massive public scandal. But that’s what we’re seeing on a global level, and we need to expose the complicity of governments and companies in this global scandal and take action together for a people’s vaccine.

Heidi Chow, Global Justice Now

Luciana Lopes, Executive Director of UAEM Latin America joined the Global Rally for a People’s Vaccine and highlighted that even though her country, Brazil, has manufacturing capacity they can’t make any vaccines because pharmaceutical companies won’t share their technology and know-how. She issued a call for continued global solidarity to push pharmaceutical companies and governments to join the COVID-Technologies Access Pool (C-TAP) and support waiving patent monopolies at the WTO.

During the People’s Vaccine Alliance March 10 Global Rally Senator Bernie Sanders delivered a message announcing his support for a People’s Vaccine and calling on the Biden administration to take the necessary steps toward global vaccine equity.

It is unconscionable that amid a global public health crisis, huge multibillion dollar pharmaceutical companies continue to prioritize profits by protecting their monopolies and driving up prices rather than prioritizing the lives of people everywhere, including in the Global South.

Our government has invested enormous sums of taxpayer dollars into the production of these technologies. All people should benefit. Not just a few already obscenely wealthy CEOs and shareholders in the wealthiest country on earth.

We need a People’s Vaccine, not a profit vaccine.

Senator Bernie Sanders

March 10, the eve of the one year declaration of COVID-19 a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the People’s Vaccine Alliance brought together organizers, activists, and advocates for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for a global rally! Free the Vaccine was excited to host two of them, and you can relive the moment right here!

Like the song? Grab it here.

Could you patent the sun? Check out this track by Free the Vaccine supporter Deonte Keitt aka DJ Chalant created for our campaign. Follow Deonte on instagram: DJChalant and Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DJChalant

Free mp3 download

This song is released into the Public Domain – no rights reserved.

Free the Vaccine launched it’s next round, Season 3, on February 17. With over 100 participants from across the globe, we are ready to continue the fight for equitable access to COVID-10 vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments.

This time around, we broaden our strategy to pressure not only universities but also public institutions, including governments and research institutes, to share their technology and know-how with the world. And we’ll also work to get good information out to the public about their contribution to research and development of vaccines and other treatments.

See our demands below & check back often to see what we’ve got going on!

Universities

Universities that have worked to develop COVID-19 innovation, technology, and know-how should share it with the world. We call on universities to join the WHO’s COVID Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and sign the Open Covid Pledge to increase production and drive a quicker end to this pandemic for everyone, everywhere.

Publicly-funded institutions

Governments and public research institutions should support policies and demonstrate leadership to ensure enough vaccines are manufactured to meet the needs of people everywhere. We want our governments to support international law and pass national legislation that puts people before the profits of pharmaceutical companies.

Public education

We want the public to have a good understanding of publicly-funded medicines, the role of the public in the research and development process, and why sharing intellectual property is the key to ending the pandemic worldwide. Through increasing public understanding of the research and development process and making sure that media reports accurately on pharmaceuticals and the pandemic, we can change the public conversation about not just vaccines but medicines, overall!