No one has said it better than UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did in February of this year: "Vaccine inequity is the biggest moral failure of our times — and people and countries are paying the price." As of last January, over 150 doses per 100 people had been given in rich countries compared with roughly ten doses per 100 people in poor countries. This “vaccine apartheid”, as recently deceased Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it, is not only a moral failure. As we saw with the Omicron variant, it also increases the likelihood of new Covid variants emerging and yet again wreaking havoc in economies and people’s lives.

The Boston area is at the heart of this global vaccine apartheid. Moderna, one of only two companies to develop the highly effective MRNA vaccines, has its headquarters in Cambridge. But contrary to what they like to claim, Moderna did not develop their vaccine alone. It was not the magical force of the drive for profit which made the vaccine possible, but public investment and government scientists paid for by taxpayer money. Moderna is fighting tooth and nail to continue to keep the vaccine patents under its control and gobble up billions of dollars to the detriment of billions of humans around the world.

Many individuals and institutions from around the world have been resisting and pushing for vaccine justice. For Moderna’s annual shareholder meeting on April 28, a broad coalition is planning a large-scale rally to free the vaccines and put the vaccines back where they belong: in the hands of the public.

Against this backdrop, on March 24th at 7pm EST the Boston Democratic Socialists of America and Justice is Global are holding a virtual forum to discuss the current state of global vaccine apartheid and lay out what we all can do to fight for vaccine justice and a definitive end to this pandemic.

Those joining us in the discussion are:

- Our host, Daniel Denvir, host of Jacobin's "The Dig" podcast

- Maaza, who will speak about the international ramifications of Vaccine Apartheid

- Nathan Foster, who will speak about local organizing efforts around Moderna

- other speakers tbd