Free the Vaccine for Covid-19!

I am delighted to share that a new documentary “White Coat Rebels” directed by Greg Barker was released via AFI Docs yesterday and will be shown this evening at the theatre in Silver Spring as part of the AFI Documentary Film Festival. The film follows a committed group of medical students, doctors, and activists who battle the structural inequalities of America’s health care system, in which their physicians’ oath to “do no harm” is challenged by the insidious power of the global pharmaceutical industry.  The organizing work of Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 features towards the end of the film which began shooting in 2019 and ended with the rise of COVID19 in the USA. The film follows two members of our UAEM student community in particular Neda and Gloria. More details here! 

You can stream the film directly from your home for the next several days. We hope you will join us in supporting it.

AND, in case you missed it, a note to let you all know that on May 5th, during our rally on the National Mall, we were able to announce that the Biden Administration would support negotations on the TRIPS Waiver. Thank you for helping us keep the pressure on! Footage from the rally, including part of the speech from Free the Vaccine project manager and UAEM student Maanasa Gurram was captured in this mini-documentary released by The Intercept. It's 15 minutes long and features a number of our allies and friends. If you're still asking questions about the Waiver and the fight to Free the Vaccine, this video should help answer your questions.

As the US opens up and here in DC vaccination rates locally hit 60% of residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine the statistics around the world offer a very different picture. The situation in many parts of the globe is concerning. In the African continent the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 are almost 40% higher than the week before according to the World Health Organization. We need vaccine equity now.

Please show your support with a donation to our campaign, we hope to launch a new cohort of volunteers to #FreeTheVaccine in the Fall but we can only do so with your help.

In solidarity,

Links:

• Check out this article featuring 5 students from our community!

On April 8th 2020 we held our first organizing calls with 300 participants from 29 countries. A year later we've seen over 700 people come through the campaign, we've targeted over 50 universities and we became one of the founding organizations of the People's Vaccine - a continually growing movement supported by Nobel Prize Winner Muhammed Yunus and groups like UNAIDS. Even Bernie Sanders joined our virtual rally on March 10th!

Read about what three Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 participants, Rachel, Dannie and Sernah shared about their experience with the campaign over the past year.

"In the year that I’ve been involved with Free the Vaccine, I’ve had my outlook on activism and organizing transformed"

"I’ve learned there is no one way to build power or reach advocacy goals. That realization was liberating, and has enabled us to welcome hundreds of people from various backgrounds into our campaign".

If you'd like to learn more and hear from some of our team you can join us on April 23rd and can register here at: bit.ly/FTVopenmeeting2 

See you soon!