<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><i class="">Important vigil on the National Mall this Tuesday afternoon….</i></div><div class=""><b class=""><br class=""></b></div><b class="">RSVP at: </b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.666666984558105px; color: windowtext;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.me%2Fe%2F5dDBZLixe&data=04%7C01%7Cpmuchina%40afsc.org%7C2a399167566646850c6b08d9455e41e0%7Cbdb9059779bc47b8adec787f4e42aa8a%7C0%7C0%7C637617095044992029%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=9lyGVJs4yq4d85eTsYh%2BSwyvn3%2F%2F5VMrofnVOTK%2BqCY%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: black;" class="">https://fb.me/e/5dDBZLixe</span></b></a> </span><br class=""><div class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">Social Media Toolkit: </span><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="3" class=""><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cciB39-xAYrEH0F8sJcarQ96FUji_x9saJhccw_qmPI/edit" class="">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cciB39-xAYrEH0F8sJcarQ96FUji_x9saJhccw_qmPI/edit</a> </font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="3" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<div class="column"><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">For Immediate Release</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">Contact: Mike Stankiewicz, </span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; color: rgb(6.670000%, 33.300000%, 80.000000%)" class=""><a href="mailto:mstankiewicz@citizen.org" class="">mstankiewicz@citizen.org</a></span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">, (202) 588-7779
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</div><p class=""><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-weight: 700;" class=""><font size="5" class="">Faith Leaders Urge Biden, Wealthy Nations to Expand Access To COVID-19
Vaccines, Invest in New Production Facilities Worldwide
</font></span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-weight: 700; font-style: italic" class="">Faith Leaders Call for Equitable Vaccine Production, Access
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-weight: 700" class="">WHAT: </span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">A coalition of faith leaders representing all the major faith traditions will hold a prayer
vigil on the National Mall at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to honor and mourn the more than 4 million
lives lost to COVID-19 and call on wealthy nations to take extraordinary measures to increase
vaccine production and end the pandemic.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">While wealthy countries have increasingly been vaccinating their populations, access to vaccines
in low- and middle- income countries is virtually non-existent. Nations in the Global South
urgently need billions of vaccines, which requires a massive increase in vaccine production
capacity across the world.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">During the vigil, religious leaders will call on Biden and other world leaders to share vaccine
recipes with the world, speedily approve the WTO TRIPS waiver, and support a global
vaccination plan that ensures every nation and person can access a vaccine by spring of 2022 and
remind them that no one is safe until everyone is vaccinated.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">They will also urge Biden to launch and Congress to invest $25 billion in a </span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; color: rgb(6.670000%, 33.300000%, 80.000000%)" class="">global vaccine
manufacturing program </span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">that would require a whole-of-government effort to source and produce
materials, train personnel and invest in regional manufacturing hubs around the world. This
commitment can produce eight billion additional doses of mRNA vaccines over the next year.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'" class="">The event will feature prayer, live music and multi-denominational speakers from around the
world.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-weight: 700" class="">WHEN: </span><span style="font-size: 12.000000pt; font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-weight: 700; color: rgb(100.000000%, 0.000000%, 0.000000%)" class="">Tuesday, July 20th, 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. EST
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