Across the world, over one quarter of a billion people have contracted COVID-19, and over 5 million of them have died. Here in the US, nearly 5 million have contacted the disease, and nearly three-quarters of a million of them have died. Meanwhile, in the rich countries vaccines are readily available while most of the rest of the world can't get them or even make them for their own people.

The World Health Organization has just identified the new Omicron viral variant that appears more contagious than any previous ones, and could threaten us all. Once again we are reminded that none of us are safe until all of us are safe, and that the pandemic won't end for any of us until it ends for all of us.

Join fellow New Yorkers and others in Times Square (the "Crossroads of the World") on Tuesday evening, November 30th. We'll be gathering in solidarity with thousands of everyday people holding events in cities worldwide. Collectively, we will call-out shameful global vaccine apartheid that has been caused by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and call for a new system of global vaccine justice instead.  

Activities across the US will also call for US leadership to make this shift happen. We will remember the millions worldwide who have unnecessarily died from COVID-19 because of the WTO's rigged system that protects the power and profits of international drug corporations over the health and lives of people.  The WTO's skewed system also allows new viral variants to emerge that threaten all of us no matter where we live and regardless of our vaccination status.

The WTO's top current agenda items is a proposal from India and South Africa (and endorsed by over 120 nations) for the WTO to temporarily suspend its corporate-friendly system of international intellectual property rights so that millions more deaths can be prevented through mass vaccination and treatment programs worldwide. The Biden administration publicly stated its support for this waiver last spring, but has yet to do much concrete to move it forward at the WTO. Many rich western countries in Europe oppose the waiver at the behest of industry forces, so active US leadership is essential.

Sponsors [list in formation]:

• ACT UP/New York
• Citizens Trade Campaign/New York Trade Justice Campaign
• CPD Action
• Health GAP
• Housing Works
• Metro New York Health Care for All
• NYDocs
• Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
• Right to Health Action
• Rise and Resist
• Students of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Sign-on your organization as a co-sponsor here:

• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LpKLY4KOKZJ5ajXrEtgk-Z9D567fUCjBoOadk_rhcb8/edit

More info on the Global Day of Action worldwide:  

• https://rethinktrade.org/toolkit/wto-ministerial-global-call-to-action/

Good background on the WTO:

• https://www.twn.my/title2/briefing_papers/MC12/briefings/WTO%20reform%20&%20WTO%20pandemic%20response%20TWNBP%20MC12.pdf