“No one is going to get out of this until everyone gets out of it.”
Dr. P. Singer, World Health Organization
Hello GRANs,
Momentum is building around the world to pressure Big Pharma and governments to make COVID-19 vaccines accessible to people in the Global South. For good reason.
- The virus is raging around the world. While vaccinations are now accelerating in wealthy countries, some lower-income countries have not yet even begun vaccinating their citizens. Vaccines are just not reaching the most vulnerable. Africa currently has the lowest vaccination rate of any continent.
- There is a serious supply issue -- the result of patents held by a few pharmaceutical companies. Temporarily suspending patents during the pandemic to increase production is the best way to ensure there will be enough vaccines for everyone everywhere.
- These same pharmaceutical companies recently paid their shareholders $26B in dividends -- enough to vaccinate the entire population of Africa.
Please join the growing movement of people who are saying that this "vaccine apartheid" is unacceptable. Add your name to the Global Justice petition to suspend patents. If you are active on Twitter, the People's Vaccine group has created some ready-made tweets that you can send directly to the CEOs of Big Pharma.
While these may seem like small actions, every additional signature and every tweet or Facebook post will add to the growing pressure on Big Pharma and governments to address this injustice.
Thank you for joining us in speaking up for fair access to medicines.
Janet and Pat
Janet Siddall and Pat Dolan
GRAN Co-Chairs
http://grandmothersadvocacy.org
grandmothersadvocacy@gmail.com
