Hi John,
I’m writing to you today to ask you to support our campaign with a donation to ensure everyone everywhere has access to a Covid-19 vaccine.
This is a crucial moment in the pandemic. In the UK, we have the hope of a return to some sort of normality because of the vaccine roll out, but poorer countries are set to wait until 2024 for widespread vaccination.
Why? Because big pharma is patenting the vaccines and keeping the production know-how under wraps, leaving an artificial shortage of vaccines. Rich countries have been able to make advance payments to pre-order enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations almost three times over, leaving little or none for poorer countries.
Allowing big pharma to prioritise profit above public health will mean people continue to suffer and die from the virus and economies continue to decline.
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Can you donate £3 to the campaign to ensure everyone everywhere can access life-saving Covid-19 vaccines?
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“We are happy that people in the economically advanced countries are now receiving the first doses and getting safe. But we also despair that this is an impression that we are the “lesser people”, where the vaccine would not be available for years to come. The impact would be devastating for the majority. In the absence of real awareness about coronavirus and non-availability of any effective vaccine, many would be left to die by this virus.”
- Farooq Tariq – Pakistan Peasants Coordination Committee, Pakistan
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Right now we have a chance to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to a life-saving vaccine
The governments of India and South Africa have put a proposal on the table of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to suspend the global trade rules on patents for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
This would allow all available manufacturers to start producing the vaccine so we can make enough vaccines as quickly as they are needed. While over 100 countries from the global south support this plan, rich countries are opposing it. And one of those is the UK.
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Will you help convince MPs and key decision-makers to support the proposal at the WTO by supporting our campaign with a donation of £3 today?
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"I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure - and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries."
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation
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This could be a game-changing step for global health
With a history of success through years of campaigning on trade and access to medicines for all, we can take on the power of big pharma and put pressure on the UK to stop blocking the proposal to suspend patents for Covid vaccines.
If the proposal is accepted by the WTO in the coming months, it would be a victory for public health while dealing a significant blow to the global rules on patents that have been rigged by big pharma for decades.
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Thank you for your support of our campaigns for a fairer future.
Best wishes,
Heidi Chow
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
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P.S. Suspending patents on Covid vaccines is the best way to ensure countries around the world can emerge from this pandemic, and together we have a chance to achieve this. Please donate today.
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