Virtual Press Conference at 11h00-12h30 (SAST) on 19 May 2021

AHF continues its global ‘Vaccinate Our World’ call-to-action with a virtual press conference in Johannesburg to urge world leaders, vaccine manufacturers, and public health organizations to ‘VOW’ to protect humanity by providing equal access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (May 17, 2021) While more than 1.3 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, 83% have gone to a handful of wealthy nations. Low-income countries – of which many are in Africa – have received a mere 0.3%. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) continues its global call-to-action to ‘Vaccinate Our World’ with a virtual press conference in Johannesburg to urge world leaders, vaccine manufacturers, and public health organizations to ‘VOW’ to protect humanity by providing equal access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries.

The ambitious but achievable ‘Vaccinate Our World’ call-to-action includes five primary tenets:
• The global COVID-19 vaccination effort must secure $100 billion from G20 countries,
• It must produce and provide seven billion vaccine doses worldwide within one year,
• Companies and governments must waive or suspend ALL COVID-19 vaccine patents during the pandemic,
• Countries must be 100% transparent in sharing information and data, and finally,
• World leaders must also promote far greater international cooperation as the driving force for ending the pandemic, not continue with politics as usual.

“If vaccine procurement proceeds at the current pace, experts are predicting that most of Africa won’t begin to see sufficient quantities of COVID-19 vaccines until early 2023, which is flatly unacceptable,” said AHF South Africa Country Program Director Dr. Nduduzo Dube. “COVAX was well-intentioned, but with wealthy countries buying up enough vaccines to inoculate their citizens as much as five times over, it’s clear that it’s too little, too late. We must learn from our battle against HIV that we cannot wait for years to get lifesaving vaccines and medicines to people who need them most. It’s time that heads of government, global public health organizations, and pharmaceutical companies do all that’s necessary to ‘Vaccinate Our World’ now.”

In addition to securing adequate funding, vaccine production must be increased worldwide, which requires access to COVID-19 vaccine patents for the rapid scale-up of production. Information sharing and cooperation between nations must also be significantly increased—including removing self-imposed restrictions on vaccine exports for those countries with a surplus. Leaders from the G20 and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank must also VOW to step up their contributions immediately.

“If one nation has COVID-19 and no access to vaccines, all countries are in danger,” added AHF Africa Bureau Chief Dr. Penninah Iutung. “The ‘VOW’ call-to-action is about uniting advocates worldwide and shining a spotlight on the immorality of vaccine rationing. While COVAX was established to help lower-income nations – the quantities of vaccines have been inadequate and have forced developing countries in Africa to fend for themselves in securing enough vaccines to protect their citizens. Legislators and decision-makers must do more to ensure that all countries have the requisite numbers of vaccines to ‘Vaccinate Our World’ and defeat the pandemic.”

The ‘Vaccinate Our World’ call-to-action kicked off in mid-April with a global digital advocacy campaign and has continued with virtual media events in Bangkok, São Paulo, and now Johannesburg.

EVENT
DAY: Thursday 19 May
TIME: 11h00 – 12h30
VENUE: To join/register | https://tinyurl.com/VOWAfrica
PANELISTS:
• Professor Jeffrey Mphahlele, Vice President for Research at the South African Medical research Council (SAMRC)
? Professor Christian Happi, Progessor of Molecular Biology and Genomics and Director of African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID)
? Allan Maleche, Executive Director Of kelin and the Board Member Developing Country NGOs of the Global Fund Board
? Dr Penninah Lutung, Bureau Chief of AHF Africa
? Alice Kayongo, Policy & Advocacy Manager of AHF Africa

Let us join our support to rid the world of COVID-19.

For more information on VOW or AHF, visit https://vaccinateourworld.org/ and either www.freeHIVtest.org.za or www.facebook.com/aidshealth.org respectively.

ENDS.

SUGGESTED SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASES:

Vaccine equity is paramount to drive the end of the global health emergency of COVID19. When just one nation isn’t protected from COVID-19 no nation is safe #VaccinateOurWorld @AIDSHealthcareSA
Register https://tinyurl.com/VOWAfrica

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"If the immorality of vaccine rationing doesn't bother you, the grave danger that it poses to the world should. Join us in urging world leaders to VOW to #VaccinateOurWorld!"

Show your support to the fight against COVID-19 by @AIDSHealthcareSA by pledging to #VaccinateOurWorld and #vownow to drive vaccine equality.

To join/register | https://tinyurl.com/VOWAfrica

60 second video - https://youtu.be/PaPfJTGHBRA
30 second video - https://youtu.be/45GbOeImdN0

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DATE: May 2021

ABOUT THE AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organisation, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.5 million clients in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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