Use the links below to be directed to the contact info of your Congress members and the White House. Then use the script email and call them to demand global access to the vaccine.
Script
As Americans are fortunate and grateful to have become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine the last few months, billions of people around the world still wait with no end in sight. The pandemic is not just a United States issue. Every country has suffered loss over the past 16 months. The COVID-19 vaccine is the solution we have all been desperately waiting for, and it is immoral and cruel to withhold it from the rest of the world.
Americans will not be protected from COVID-19 until everyone is protected from COVID-19.
On Saturday, April 24, India announced 349,691 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, which was the fourth consecutive day the country set the world record for daily infections reported by CNN. In the wake of this news, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeted “Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak.” These words are meaningless when we can materially help India vaccinate its people from COVID-19 and choose not to.
As stated in the October 2, 2020 joint ask from India and South Africa to the World Trade Organization’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, “An effective response to COVID-19 pandemic requires rapid access to affordable medical products including diagnostic kits, medical masks, other personal protective equipment and ventilators, as well as vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of patients in dire need.”
The intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies are not just cause to not share the resource that will save millions of lives in a global pandemic.
On February 5, 2021, the Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act in “America First” fashion. Since then, Americans have celebrated as we are all now eligible to receive the vaccine. It is time to repeal the act for the sake of global humanity.
The United States government must intervene to end the pandemic as soon as possible by supporting, and encouraging other rich nations to support, the waiver for intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine at the April 30, 2021 meeting of the World Trade Organization Council for Trade-Related Aspects for Intellectual Property Rights and immediately repealing the Defense Production Act to allow raw material exports for other nations to produce the COVID-19 vaccine.
For Biden:
We demand the Biden administration to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine and repeal the Defense Production Act.
For House:
We demand you pressure the Biden administration to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine and repeal the Defense Production Act by signing Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s letter to Biden.
For Senate:
We demand you pressure the Biden administration to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine and repeal the Defense Production Act.
End Script
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