Hi John,
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in last week’s People’s Vaccine global day of action.
From Bernie Sanders announcing his support for the campaign at our global rally, to protests outside Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson in South Africa, this was a day where we helped mobilise organisations, networks and activists around the world against vaccine apartheid.
There were projections, speeches, protests, banner drops and hashtags, all stepping up the pressure on big pharma and rich country governments. Here’s a round-up of what went on.
Powerful rally
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The day of action kicked off with an online rally featuring speakers from South Africa, Ghana, Colombia, Indonesia, the US and the UK. The feedback from supporters was fantastic – “Powerful incredibly moving”, “The speakers were all amazing”, “It was a very inspiring line up on this utterly important initiative”. You can watch the whole rally back on YouTube or Facebook, or watch individual speeches on this playlist.
Making a noise online
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Many thousands of us took part in the day of action online – adding the People’s Vaccine badge to our profile pictures, sharing the map of global vaccine apartheid and tweeting the leaders of countries defending big pharma’s patents. We got #PeoplesVaccine trending on Twitter during the day and we got many many new people involved in the campaign.
Doorstepping big pharma
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From AstraZeneca’s global HQ in Cambridge to Pfizer’s and Moderna's offices in the US, we went to the source of the injustice in multiple locations around the world.
Lobbyists in the spotlight
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Big pharma has armies of lobbyists defending vaccine apartheid in the corridors of power. In the UK we projected the People’s Vaccine message onto the office of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry in London. In the US, Free the Vaccine activist turned up outside the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in Washington DC.
Governments
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Our banner drop from Westminster Bridge was the highlight of my day. In strong winds and weighed down with potatoes we finally got the shot! Protests in several countries targeted strong government action – activists projected onto the parliament building in South Africa, and there was a demonstration outside the German federal government in Berlin.
What’s next?
The day concluded with the disappointing but not surprising news that rich nations – led by the US, UK and EU – continued to block the suspension of patents at the latest WTO meeting.
However global south countries are not giving up: the WTO will meet again in mid-April and they will table the proposal to suspend patents once again.
Between now and then we have an opportunity to build further pressure for a People’s Vaccine not a profit vaccine – you can start by reading and sharing the full round-up of the day on our blog.
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Once again, a big thank you to everyone who took part last week.
Thank you,
Heidi Chow
Pharma campaigner, Global Justice Now
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