Yesterday, a 90-year-old British grandmother named Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to be given a coronavirus vaccine outside of a clinical trial.

On the same day, Donald Trump conducted a self-aggrandizing publicity stunt in the form of issuing a ludicrous executive order that attempts to compel manufacturers to prioritize vaccine access in the U.S. before working with other countries.

Of course, Trump is pushing a false — and immoral — choice.

The people of the world are all fighting the same virus, which doesn’t know an American from a Zimbabwean.

Instead of pitting us against each other, the President of the United States should be advocating global access to vaccines.

The fact is the U.S. government has the power and resources to expand the supply of vaccines everywhere — by scaling-up manufacturing, sharing technology with the World Health Organization, and teaching the world to make safe and effective vaccines.

That would help shorten the pandemic, save lives, and restore jobs. And not just in America, but around the world.

Join me in urging President-Elect Joe Biden:

If we don’t share the vaccines, we know what's going to happen. It will take years for people in poor countries to get access. Tens or hundreds of thousands will die needlessly. But if we end corporate monopoly control and share the technology with qualified manufacturers around the world, we’ll quickly have enough to vaccinate everyone on the planet.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

Stay safe.

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. For half a century, Public Citizen has been advancing policies that put the needs of everyday Americans before the greed of billionaires and Big Business. That legacy of progress and that ongoing work could not matter more right now, as our nation transitions to a Joe Biden presidency that will be as progressive as we — you and Public Citizen, together — make it.

Of course, we’re also busy undoing damage the Trump administration has already done and watching out for whatever shenanigans a lame-duck Donald Trump tries to get away with. And — like so many nonprofits and small businesses — we continue to experience financial strain related to the coronavirus pandemic.

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