[CTC] Invitation: Emergency Briefing on the TRIPS Waiver Campaign

[Arthur Stamoulis]

This briefing is intended for state and local partner groups and grassroots activists across the country.  Please join us if you’re interested, and help spread the word. —Arthur


Expanding Global Supplies of COVID-19 Vaccines & Treatments
An Emergency Briefing on the TRIPS Waiver Campaign

Wednesday, March 31 • 2pm Eastern / 1pm Central / 12pm Mountain / 11am Pacific 
>>> RSVP ONLINE HERE <<< <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jp3LHBYhQm23HElTdI6frA>>>>  <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jp3LHBYhQm23HElTdI6frA>RSVP ONLINE HERE <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jp3LHBYhQm23HElTdI6frA> <<<

Pressure is increasing on the Biden administration to support the emergency TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization that's needed to ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments in as many places as possible as quickly as possible.  Please join us for an emergency briefing on how you can help.

Current supplies of COVID vaccines, test kits and medications are nowhere near enough to meet global demand — and that situation is not expected to change for years, unless global production is dramatically increased.  

Numerous factories around the world have the capacity to produce COVID vaccines and medications, but “Trade-Related Intellectual Property” (TRIPS) rules enforced by the WTO are a major obstacle standing in the way.  Over 100 countries — as well as a wide range of public health, faith, consumer, labor, civil rights, development and other civil society organizations — have called for a temporary waiver of these dangerous trade rules.  But the United States and a small handful of other rich nations have blocked the waiver from moving forward.  They’re effectively putting pharmaceutical company profits ahead of an end to the pandemic.

We need your help raising the profile of this issue and putting pressure on U.S. policymakers to support the TRIPS waiver.  Doing so could help save literally millions of lives, help the economy to rebound more quickly and also help reduce the chances of a viral mutation that enables the coronavirus to evade current vaccines and start the entire pandemic process over for everyone.  

Please join us for an emergency briefing <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jp3LHBYhQm23HElTdI6frA> about how you can make a difference on this key life-or-death issue.  Presenters include:

	Achal Prabhala, coordinator of AccessIBSA and co-author of Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/covid-vaccines-patents.html>
	Matthew Rose, director of U.S. policy and advocacy at Health GAP
	Hillary Haden, director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition
	Andi Petrovic, field organizer at Global Trade Watch

The campaign for the TRIPS waiver has a lot of momentum behind it.  We can win, but we need your help.  Please RSVP now. <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jp3LHBYhQm23HElTdI6frA>

Questions? Email: info at citizenstrade.org <mailto:info at citizenstrade.org>
Arthur Stamoulis, Executive Director
CITIZENS TRADE CAMPAIGN

Online: citizenstrade.org
Twitter: @citizenstrade


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