At the current pace, millions of people in the Global South will not get access to the vaccine until 2024. This is not only an egregious crisis of human rights and racial justice, it’s also a threat to the safety of Global North residents and the entire global economy.

The root cause of vaccine inequality is that leaders of the rich countries are prioritizing the profits of pharmaceutical corporations over the vast majority of people’s needs. Pharmaceutical companies that received multi-billion dollar public investments are able to create an artificial scarcity of vaccines by hoarding intellectual property to publicly funded technology. This negligence has created opportunities for deadly variants to emerge, allowing devastating surges of disease in India and Brazil. These crises foreshadow an uncertain future where COVID-19 becomes endemic and surges roil the world for years to come.

Pressure from hundreds of organizations forced the US government to change its position on the TRIPS waiver and to support freeing COVID-19 vaccine patents on May 5th. This is a historic shift that opens up the opportunity for a truly equitable solution to this crisis. Yet Angela Merkel's opposition is preventing us from getting the comprehensive waiver that we need.

She is shielding powerful pharma companies in Germany, prolonging the pandemic, and causing the deaths of millions. And Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels is planning to offer her an honorary degree on JULY 15. This is nothing less than an endorsement of vaccine apartheid and Merkel's murderous pro pharma policies.

We--students, professors, alumni, and community members--are demanding that unless Angela Merkel commit to support the TRIPS waiver that Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels rescind this honorary degree.