Join us in midtown Manhattan this Fri. June 10th at 12 noon as we join with health and social justice activists worldwide to collectively to demand that the US and European countries “end COVID monopolies” and “vaccinate and treat the world now!”  Our event is one of many Global Days of Actions organized by the People’s Vaccine Alliance during early June. They are being held prior to the the upcoming annual Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that begins on Sun. June 12 in Geneva.  The issue of the WTO adopting a comprehensive response to the COVID-19 (and future) pandemics will be one of the top agenda items.

Here in NYC, we and our allies who lead the #EndVaccineApartheidNYC campaign will be gathering for “Earth to Europe and the US: End COVID Monopolies Now!” We’ll be marching to the UN Missions of Switzerland, European Union, United Kingdom, Germany, and US, to call them out for not taking the necessary steps to stop the COVID-19 pandemic and save millions of lives, and deliver a letter of demands to each country’s UN Ambassador.

Schedule of event components:

• 12 noon — Gather in Grand Central Plaza, 622 Third Ave. (NW corner of East 40th St.)
• 12:05 — Swiss Mission to UN, 633 Third Ave. (NE corner of East 40th St.)
• 12:15 — European Union Mission to UN, 666 Third Ave. (NW corner of East 42nd St.)
• 12:30 — United Kingdom Mission to the UN, 885 2nd Ave. (NW cor. East 47th St.)
• 12:45 — Germany Mission to the UN, 871 1st Ave. (SW cor. East 49th St.)
• 12:55 — US Mission to the UN, 799 First Ave. (SW cor. 45th St.)

Since the fall of 2020, these five Western nations have stood in the way of efforts at the WTO to temporarily waive international intellectual property rights so that COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines can be immediately mass produced and used everywhere around the world, particularly in the Global South. As a result, millions get sick and many die, the pandemic keeps spreading, and new viral variants emerge that threaten all of us everywhere.  Instead of protect everyday people everywhere, these countries are protecting #BigPharma’s pandemic profiteering.  Over 120 nations are supporting a proposal from India and South Africa for the WTO to adopt a comprehensive “TRIPS waiver” to end the global pandemic as quickly as possible.

Here is the Action Network event and Facebook event to share.

List of participating organizations [list in formation]:

• Center for Popular Democracy and CPD Action
• Health Global Access Project (HealthGAP)
• Housing Works
• Metro New York Health Care for All
• New York Trade Justice Coalition
• Physicians for a National Health Program, NY Metro Chapter
• Public Citizen Global Trade Watch
• Rise and Resist
• Showing Up for Racial Justice NYC