MEDICINA PARA LAS PERSONAS En esta publicación en línea del Derecho a la Salud, revelaremos por qué los precios de los medicamentos son tan altos y qué podemos hacer al respecto. Hablaremos sobre el precio de los medicamentos, la investigación y el desarrollo, así como el importante papel de la defensa durante este tiempo para garantizar que todas las personas tengan acceso a los medicamentos que necesitan. ¡Una pandemia no termina en ninguna parte hasta que termina en todas partes! MODERADO POR VICTOR ROY, MD Durante la parte del panel de la entrada web, escucharemos a los siguientes líderes: Afton Cissell , abogado principal, congresista Lloyd Doggett Merith Basey - Director Ejecutivo, Universidades Aliadas para Medicamentos Esenciales Zain Rizvi - Investigador de Leyes y Políticas, Ciudadano Público Después del panel, nos dividiremos en grupos pequeños para elaborar estrategias sobre cómo podemos exigir colectivamente que el Congreso implemente una legislación que garantice que los medicamentos y las vacunas subsidiados por los contribuyentes estadounidenses se mantengan en el dominio público, ¡gratis para todos, en todas partes! LECTURAS INTERESANTES WATCH Trabajando juntos para mejores opciones de tratamiento BY MEDICINESPATENTPOOL VER STAT La tensión entre la salud pública y las patentes en la era de Covid-19 BY CHRISTOPHER MORTEN AND CHARLES DUAN Lee mas PUBLIC CITIZEN Recetas de políticas para bajar los precios de los medicamentos BY PUBLIC CITIZEN Lee mas

More pandemics are coming—soon. Some will be more infectious. Some will be more deadly. Some will be both. As a result of globalization and climate change, new outbreaks are almost exponentially accelerating. With six times more animal-to-human outbreaks in 2010 than 1980, we stand to repeat this deadly cycle within the decade. The time is short to apply the lessons of COVID-19 and enact the policies needed to prevent this nightmare from happening again. America needs the People's Pandemic Prevention Plan . 1. PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLIMATE JOBS CORP FIGHTING RACIAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISPARITIES Restore decades of disinvestment in public health and environmental well-being impoverished communities by creating hundreds of thousands of permanent union jobs in community-based social change organizations, preferentially hiring from vulnerable communities impacted by systemic racism and the policies that push pandemic diseases onto the already poor and sick. Public Health Corps should tackle a broader range of health disparities, such as opioid addiction, homelessness, environmental racism, natural resources restoration and conservation, clean energy, and even rural broadband. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials estimate that at least 300,000 public health jobs are needed, and this number is supported by Obama/Biden CDC Director Tom Frieden’s estimate. They should be paid a living wage (similar to Census Workers) and belong to a union. Rather than being low-level health service providers for government agencies, the Public Health Corps should be organizers, working at community-based advocacy organizations. These jobs should be purpose-built to organize for social change and mobilize to correct systemic and structural problems that have contributed to communities of color being disproportionately poor and sick long before COVID. We must take additional action to repair and heal the country with new protections for essential workers, COVID survivors, and families, including: (1) compensation for victims and survivors of COVID-19, modeled after the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund covering out-of-pocket medical costs, mental health counseling, funerals/burials, pain and suffering, and loss of earnings, while also providing GI-bill style educational benefits; (2) Implement an NIH research agenda for the "25-35% or more " of COVID-19 patients Dr. Anthony Fauci reports having long-term symptoms; (3) There are millions of Americans who are or will be temporarily or permanently disabled by coronavirus. These people need hassle-free disability benefits and other social supports; (4) Pass the Essential Workers Bill of Rights. R2H Action supports passage of S. 32/H.R. 460 : the Health Force, Resilience Force, and Jobs To Fight COVID–19 Act of 2021 Read More 3. A GLOBAL FUND TO PANDEMIC-PROOF THE PLANET FUNDING BOTTOM-UP, COUNTRY-OWNED, COMMUNITY-LED PANDEMIC PREVENTION PLANS R2H Action supports President Biden's call for a multilateral catalytic financing mechanism, and joins scores of coalition partners and 120 House Members to urge the President and Congress to leverage other donors by putting at least $2 billion on the table in 2021 as seed funding for multilateral action to prevent pandemics at the source. Account after expert account demonstrate that as little as $20 billion annually, from all donor sources, would avert $20-$30 TRILLION in economic losses to a future pandemic—as well as save millions of lives. The United States should use this new global fund to: Fund country-owned, community-driven "National Pandemic Prevention Plans" in every low-income country and every middle-income country that is a zoonotic transmission hotspot. These plans should accomplish at least complementary, interlinked goals: post-spillover pandemic containment , and pre-spillover pandemic prevention . Fully implement WHO’s International Health Regulations and updated Global Health Security Agenda priority actions within five years. Make direct investments in public-sector health systems, including labs, surveillance networks, equipment, supplies, and health workforce to detect, manage, and mitigate outbreaks where they start, before they spread. Finance regional, national, Indigenous and community-led action plans to prevent disease spillovers from animals to humans, focused on the primary upstream drivers of zoonotic transmission: deforestation, climate change, and wildlife trade. Prevent outbreaks at the source by funding community-based economic alternatives to climate change and deforestation in the top 500 zoonotic transmission hotspots, providing health care, jobs training and support for economic development activities less dangerous than palm oil plantations, strip mining, burning the Amazon, illegal logging, and wildlife trade. Supporting country incentives for conservation and reductions in forest degradation, protection of wildlife, and regulation of commercial live-animal markets, husbandry and trade. Increase funds for other global health programs already addressing COVID and other critical pandemics on the ground, and meet Joe Biden’s commitment to “ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2025”, with increases for PEPFAR’s annual budget (flat-funded for years), and sustaining the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to make up for ground lost due to COVID-19. Read More 2. END VACCINE APARTHEID AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE MEDICINES AND VACCINES WORLDWIDE—including the USA Drug companies want to keep medicines and vaccines developed with taxpayer-funded R&D ($30 billion so far for COVID-19) under lock and key, hidden behind costly patent monopoly barriers. Pharmaceutical corporation patents on the public's research prop up high prices that leave billions behind, create multi-year manufacturing bottlenecks, and grant privileged access to whiter, wealthier nations. This must change—for all medicines and vaccines, not just those invented during this pandemic. Domestically, exorbitant drug prices are an enormous problem that must be addressed beyond this current crisis. If a prescription drug corporation refuses to license a product or support transfer of technology and know-how internationally, or if the company refuses to agree to a fair price domestically, President Biden should make use of his existing powers to, at the stroke of a pen, license a generic producer. This is the only tactic to ensure prices always come down and that patients always get the medicines they need. The Biden Administration should also include global access and domestic fair pricing clauses in new taxpayer-funded R&D grants. Now that the United States has rejoined the WHO and made a contribution to COVAX, it's time to scale up support for manufacturing, technology, and know-how transfer. Until we help finance vaccine manufacturing hubs and distribution systems strong enough to reach billions more people, COVID-19 will continue to mutate and spread, possibly outrunning the vaccines we have at hand. Smart investments are urgently needed and will last long after the current crisis, once we've built up the industrial capacity already existing in numerous countries across Africa, Asia, and South America. Read More 4. PROHIBIT SALES BY CORPORATIONS THAT PUT THE WORLD'S HEALTH AT RISK Phase-in prohibitions against U.S. product sales by corporations with irresponsible deforestation or illegal/unsafe wildlife trade anywhere in their supply chains. HIV, SARS, H1N1, Ebola, Zika, MERS, and COVID-19 are all zoonotic diseases. Diseases are jumping from animals to humans at a steeply accelerating rate, primarily due to extractive industries that destroy tropical forests and Indigenous communities—in order to sell products to wealthier people elsewhere. Zoonotic disease hotspots have already been mapped out, and climate change-inducing corporate encroachment into wildlife habitats is putting the world at risk . We know where the problems are and what's causing them. All that is missing is action. Support similar initiatives in the EU, UK, and at the G20 level. Prohibit U.S. Government purchases of products with unsafe forest or wildlife supply chains as soon as possible. Support U.S. and international enforcement of regulations for trade in forest and wildlife products, lending support to communities and national authorities, stepped up safety and sanitation for markets, and support for One Health and Planetary Health initiatives. Read More R2H Action, joined by more than 125,000 thousand activist leaders, health workers, scientists, and families impacted by COVID, is fighting for a People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan. This call to action is backed by 1,500 front-line health workers, 450+ organizations (including NAACP, SEIU, Greenpeace USA, Religious Action Center, Families USA, #VOTEPROCHOICE, People’s Action, ACT UP, Friends of the Earth Action, People for the American Way, Global Exchange, Center for Popular Democracy, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, Mighty Earth, Indivisible, Rainforest Alliance and many more ) . Renowned experts like Professor Jeff Sachs, Professor Ruha Benjamin, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia and Dr. Paul Farmer have joined the call, and are speaking up in town halls, online forums, and op-eds advocating for this plan. In Autumn 2020, R2H Action joined with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ro Khanna to advance the Pandemic Prevention Plan in Congress as a Congressional sign-on letter. After more than 300 grassroots meetings with Members of Congress and tens of thousands of emails and phone calls, 141 Members of Congress endorsed the plan Since then, we've helped draft a dozen bills, joined eight coalitions, enlisted another 120 MOCs on a new letter to President Biden, and are well on our way towards turning this plan into law in 2021. These four priority areas are not all that is needed—but we will not succeed unless we tackle these issues. Organizational Endorsers ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSING THE PEOPLE'S PANDEMIC PREVENTION PLAN : As of 11 October 2020 : NAACP • SEIU • Greenpeace USA • United We Dream • Families USA • Religious Action Center • ACT UP • NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice • Indivisible USA • R2H Action [Right to Health] • Friends of the Earth Action • Center for Popular Democracy • Women’s March Action • Marked by COVID • Public Citizen • Union for Reform Judaism (RAC, Religious Action Center) • Rainforest Alliance • Community Catalyst • CAEAR Coalition • Oxfam • Our Revolution • Natural Resources Defense Council • The AIDS Institute • Human Impact Partners • Mighty Earth • NASTAD (National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors) • National Employment Law Project • #VOTEPROCHOICE • Positive Women’s Network USA • Association of Nurses in AIDS Care • AVAC - Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention • Partners In Health • People for the American Way • People's Action • Students for a National Health Program • Global Exchange • Torah Trumps Hate • Dogwood Alliance • Physicians for a National Health Program • Treatment Action Group • Social Security Works • Universal Health Care Action Network • Common Defense • National Women’s Health Network • Coalition on Human Needs • Southern AIDS Coalition • AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families • Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice • National Coalition of STD Directors • African Services Committee • National Partnership for Women & Families • Grey Panthers • Drug Prices are Too High • Clinicians for Progressive Care • End AIDS Now • Community Health Acceleration Partnership • CODEPINK • ADAP Advocacy Association • Center for Biological Diversity • Housing Works Inc. • Iowa CCI (Citizens for Community Improvement) • Physicians Action Network • Progressive Doctors • Community Access National Network (CANN) • Progressive Reform Network • Latino Commission on AIDS • Organizing for Action USA • The Juggernaut Project • Thermo Fisher Scientific • Witness at the Border • Mainers for Accountable Leadership • National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance • Justice is Global • Antibalas! • Southpaw Michigan • San Francisco AIDS Foundation • Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities • American Muslim Health Professionals • The Center for HIV Law and Policy • AIDS Foundation Chicago • Fenway Health Right Care Alliance - MA • Tennessee Anti-Racist Network • Berks Stands Up • 3rd World Matrix • A Space for Healing • A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance • ACT UP Philadelphia • Action Together Bay Area • Action Together Florida • Courage California • Action Together Suncoast • Action Together Walpole • Affordable Homeownership Foundation Inc • Akron Local DSA Akron • Alameda County Health Consortium • Alexander Tenants Association Inc. • Always Looking Up • Amazon Productions • American Security Educators, Inc. • American Voices Abroad Berlin • Amnesty International. Group 213 • Arc Health PBC • Arkansas WAND • Asian Americans for Community Involvement • Banned Books, LLC • Without Walls / Baun Associates • Benedictine Sisters of Baltimore • Benedictine Sisters, Clyde, MO • Berryville Organics • Big Picture Productions • BioMediCon, Inc. • Bolder Benefits, Inc. • Bristlecone Alliance • Broadway Community • Build A Movement 2020 • Butler County Democratic Executive Committee • Calling for Change • Cancer Prevention Daily • Carolina Jews for Justice • Casa de Salud • CDI / Choices for Children • Center for Indian Law • Center For Inquiry • Central Valley Journey 4 Justice • Centre for Environment Human Rights & Development Forum- CEHRDF • Physicians for Social Responsibility - Chicago • Christian Council of Delmarva • Christus Trinity Clinic • Circle of Hope • 7 Toes Productions • Cleveland Power of Wind Action Team • Climate Health Now, California • CO Foundation for Universal Health Care - Candidate Liaison Project for IMFA • Coai, Inc. • Collier Congressional Watchdogs • Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care • Communities of Shalom, Inc. • Communities Without Borders • Community Food and Justice Coalition • Community Health Partnership • Community of St. Francis, San Francisco • Compassionate Toledo • Congregation of St. Joseph • Ka Ipu Ha'a Mentoring Program • Daughters of Charity • Dearborn Art Group • Deep Water Care • Desert Progressives • Dialogue Institute • District 6 Community Planners • Diversity Directions • DSA Health Workers Collective • Earth Evolution • Ecological Rights Foundation • Economic Inequity Health Task Force of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility • ECOregon: The Environmental Concert of Oregon • Educultural Foundation • El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center • EMPOWER India • Empowered Connections • Indivisible Englewood • Eno River Unitarian Universalist Earth Justice Team • Environment and Climate Change Canada • Eons Learning • Extinction Rebellion - UW Chapter (XRUW) • Family Council • Farwell Foundation • First Congregational Church - Littleton United Church of Christ NH • Food for the Cure • Fortunate Farm LLC • Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR) • Free the Caged Children • Fresh Anointing Ministries • Friends of Earth-San Antonio Chapter • Fund Our Future International • FVM Global Magazine • GaiaYana • Garvin County Environmental Group • Gender Action • Georgetown Medical AIDS Advocacy Network (GMAAN) • Global Green Publication and Productions • Global United Voices Network • GlobeMed at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, US • Gloucester Coalition for the Prevention of Domestic Abuse • Good Neighbor Food Pantry of Woodstock NY • Grandmother's Healing Wisdom • Green Earth Goods • Green Party of the Mid-Columbia, WA • H-Peace • Hadassah, Orlando Chapter • Harvard Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association • Hawaii Institute for Human Rights • Health Care For All MA • Health Care New Zealand • Healthcare for All California/PNHP • Heart's Path Healing • Hershey's Mill Nature Group • Hip Kids Pediatrics • Hoboken RESIST • House of Grace • HTLV/XMRV National Registry • Human Ecology Center • id22: Institute for Creative Sustainability • Idaho Veterans Indivisible • iHealth • Immigrant Service Providers Group, Somerville CDC • IMPACT (Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team) • Indian Health Clinics • Indigenous Circle of Flagstaff • Indivisible - Sacramento • Indivisible 49 • Indivisible Acadiana • Indivisible Action Group Upper West Side • Indivisible Anchorage • Indivisible Columbus District 3 • Indivisible District 31 • Indivisible Irvington • Indivisible Lowville • Indivisible San Francisco • Indivisible Sedona • Indivisible South Suburban Communities, Illinois • Indivisible Wooster • Indivisible-Canton MA • Indivisible, Lewisburg, WV • Injoy Pastoral Care • Institute for Creative Living • International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), Fast-Track Cities Institute • International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge • Irish Doctors for Environment • Joining Forces for Education • JP Progressives • Just Faith • Justice For All (JFA) • Ka Ipu Ha'a (The Humble Vessel) • Kamukunji Paralegal Trust (KAPLET) • Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare • Kids First • Kids Talk Climate • Kids That Care Pediatric & Cancer Fund • King-Snohomish Progressive Organization • LA Forward • La Huerta, LLC USA • Las Ventanas • Latinos Salud • League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland • League of Women Voters of New Rochelle • Leonard Peltier Defense Committee • Let’s Kick ASS NY (AIDS Survivor Syndrome) • Liberal Women of Chesterfield County Healthcare Advocacy Committee • Living Beatitudes Community • Longview United Methodist Church • Lumiere Foundation • Lycoming County Progressives • Madoo Ministry • Mariposa Habitat Nursery • Mass ACT • Mass Peace Action • MDavis Consulting LLC • Medafore.com • Medical IMPACT • Medical Whistleblower Advocacy Network • Michigan Coalition for Human Rights • Michigan Teamsters Black Caucus • MillerMedia7 • Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter (MRVAC) • Minority Health International Research Training Program at Rhodes College • MIT Global Health Alliance, Planetary Health Alliance • Monastery of St. Gertrude • Morris Action Coalition • Mothers Out Front-Tompkins • Moving Forward Towards Independence • National Equality Action Team (NEAT) • Nebraskans for Peace • Nelson Mandela TB HIV Community Information and Resource Center • Neponset Health Center • NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice • Nevada County Sunrise • New York Doctors • Nia Impact Capital • NJ Peace Action • Nonviolent Austin • North American Climate Conservation and Environment (NACCE) • Northeast Ohio’s Peoples Leadership Group • Nu Rho Foundation Inc. • NYC Coalition to Dismantle Racism in the Health System • NYS Democratic Committee - Town of Fabius • NYS for Elizabeth Warren • Ocean Conservation Society • One Human Family QCA • Organizing for Action Blue West Valley • Organizing for Action, Tacoma • Our Revolution Long Beach • OWL SF • Pacifica Environmental Family • Panhandle Democrats • Parallax Perspectives • Partners in Health Engage - Harvard Chapter • Partners in Health Engage - Pitt Chapter • Partners in Health Engage Miami • Partners in Health-Engage - UNC Chapter • Pax Christi, Long Island • Peeling Back The Onions Layers Community Education Project • PEER: Progressive East End Reformers • People's Lobby • Persist Chicago • Physicians for a National Health Plan of Western PA • Physicians for a National Health Program - Ventura Chapter • Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme • Physicians for a National Health Program of Western PA • Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter • Physicians for Progress - Ventura County • Physicians for Social Responsibility - AZ Chapter • Planning Alternatives for Change, NYC • Plowshare Peace and Justice Center • Power Together Women’s March • Preserve Giles County • Prevention Access Campaign • Progressive Democrats of America - Orange CA Chapter • Progressive Democrats of America-Tucson AZ Chapter • Progressive Women of Pelham • Project Blueprint • Q Clinic, NYC • Ranck Consulting • RATT Pack (Resistance Action Tuesdays and Thursdays) • Reclaim Augusta • Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens • Rethink Captivity • Revolution Strategy • Right Care Alliance - FL • Rivers Project • ROC Action • Sands Jr Community Development Corp • Sequoia Forest Keeper • Sero Project • Sisters of Mercy, Omaha • Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Sisters of Social Service • Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt New York • Sisters of St. Dominic or Racine Dominicans • Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia • Sisters of St. Joseph, Boston • SKS - Strategic Knowledge Sciences • Sound Solutions • South Florida Audubon Society • Body Politic COVID-19 Virtual Support Group • South Puget Sound Action Network • South Siders for Peace • South End Neighbors for Peace and Justice • Southern DE Alliance for Racial Justice • St. John CME Church • Stand Earth • Strong Heart School • Students for a National Health Program—Weill Cornell Medicine Chapter • Students for a National Health Program, UC Berkeley Chapter • Sustainable Arizona • Sustainable Mill Valley • Swing Left Peninsula • Terra Advocati • The Arc SF • The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic illness • The Ecotopian Society • The Father Walter Outreach Inc. • The Institute for Creative Living • The Queenie Foundation, Inc. • SAMOCRI • Centia Health • The Talented Ten, Inc • The Tree of Life Clinic LLC • The Tucker Schoeman Venture • The Whaleman Foundation • The Writers Workshop of Asheville, NC • Tidewaters Gateway Partnership • Twin Cities Nonviolent • Upper Valley Community Nursing Project • Upper West Side MoveOn • Uptown Progressive Action (NYPAN chapter) • Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences • Veterans For Peace, Chapter 161 • Vivent Health • Ward 8 Woods Conservancy • Water Protectors of Milwaukee • Westchester Disability Advocacy Partnership (WDAP) • Westland Ecumenical Community Food Pantry • White Rabbit Grove RDNA • Win-Win Resolutions • WolfPAC Tennessee • Women Together Global Inc • Women's Health Institute • Worcester NOW • Wyoming Interfaith Network • Xun Biosphere Project • Youth and Women for Opportunities in Uganda • Americas TB Coalition • Care. Test. Protect. • Centre for Health and Development Initiative Africa • National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd • Action Together Stark • DEMSW • Alliance for Development and Population Services • Indivisible St Johns Florida • Global Justice Institute • Good Health Community Programmes • Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) • The Womxn Project • SisterSong: National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective • National Working Positive Coalition • Broward for Progress • Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum • Human Rights Research Documentation Center (HURIC) • LightHouse of Grace • Gaia: The Earth Force United Coalition • Poligon Education Fund • UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose • Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces • Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association • Unitarian Universalist Justice Florida • Cascade AIDS Project • GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality

PEOPLE'S PANDEMIC PREVENTION PLAN Stop COVID-19, Build Back Better, and Prevent the Pandemics of the Future Endorsed by 141 Members of Congress, 450 + organizations, 1,500 front-line health workers, and >125,000 people from 121 countries APRENDE MÁS More pandemics are coming—soon. Some will be more infectious. Some will be more deadly. Some will be both. As a result of globalization and climate change new outbreaks are almost exponentially accelerating. With six times more animal-to-human outbreaks in 2010 than in 1980, we stand to repeat this deadly cycle within the decade. The time is short to apply the lessons of COVID-19 and enact the policies needed to prevent this nightmare from happening again. America needs the People's Pandemic Prevention Plan: 1. A GLOBAL FUND TO PANDEMIC-PROOF THE PLANET FUNDING BOTTOM-UP, COUNTRY-OWNED, COMMUNITY-LED PANDEMIC PREVENTION PLANS R2H Action supports President Biden's call for a multilateral catalytic financing mechanism, and joins scores of coalition partners and 120 House Members to urge the President and Congress to leverage other donors by putting at least $2 billion on the table as seed funding for multilateral action to prevent pandemics at the source. Account after expert account demonstrate that as little as $20 billion annually, from all donor sources, would avert $20-$30 TRILLION in economic losses to a future pandemic—as well as save millions of lives. Fund country-owned, community-driven "National Pandemic Prevention Plans" in every low-income country and every middle-income country that is a zoonotic transmission hotspot. These plans should accomplish complementary, interlinked goals: post-spillover pandemic containment , and pre-spillover pandemic prevention . Fully implement WHO’s International Health Regulations and updated Global Health Security Agenda priority actions within five years. Make direct investments in public-sector health systems, including labs, surveillance networks, equipment, supplies, and health workforce to detect, manage, and mitigate outbreaks where they start, before they spread. Finance regional, national, Indigenous and community-led action plans to prevent disease spillovers from animals to humans, focused on the primary upstream drivers of zoonotic transmission: deforestation, climate change, and wildlife trade. Prevent outbreaks at the source by funding community-based economic alternatives to climate change and deforestation in the top 500 zoonotic transmission hotspots, providing health care, jobs training and support for economic development activities less dangerous than palm oil plantations, strip mining, burning the Amazon, illegal logging, and wildlife trade. Supporting country incentives for conservation and reductions in forest degradation, protection of wildlife, and regulation of commercial live-animal markets, husbandry and trade. Increase funds for other global health programs already addressing COVID and other critical pandemics on the ground, and meet Joe Biden’s commitment to “ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2025”, with increases for PEPFAR’s annual budget (flat-funded for years), and sustaining the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to make up for ground lost due to COVID-19. Read More 4. PROHIBIT SALES BY CORPORATIONS THAT PUT THE WORLD'S HEALTH AT RISK PHASE-IN PROHIBITIONS AGAINST U.S PRODUCT SALES BY CORPORATIONS WITH IRRESPONSIBLE DEFORESTATION AND/OR ILLEGAL/UNSAFE WILDLIFE TRADE ANYWHERE IN THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS. HIV, SARS, H1N1, Ebola, Zika, MERS, and COVID-19 are all zoonotic diseases. Diseases are jumping from animals to humans at a steeply accelerating rate, primarily due to extractive industries that destroy tropical forests and Indigenous communities—in order to sell products to wealthier people elsewhere. Zoonotic disease hotspots have already been mapped out, and climate change-inducing corporate encroachment into wildlife habitats is putting the world at risk . We know where the problems are and what's causing them. All that is missing is action. Prohibit U.S. Government purchases of products with unsafe forest or wildlife supply chains as soon as possible. Support U.S. and international enforcement of regulations for trade in forest and wildlife products, lending support to communities and national authorities, stepped up safety and sanitation for markets, and support for One Health and Planetary Health initiatives. Support similar initiatives in the EU, UK, and at the G20 level. Read More 2. END VACCINE APARTHEID AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE MEDICINES AND VACCINES WORLDWIDE—including the USA Drug companies want to keep medicines and vaccines developed with taxpayer-funded R&D (hundreds of billions of dollars so far for COVID-19) under lock and key, hidden behind costly patent monopoly barriers. Pharmaceutical corporation patents on the public's research prop up high prices that leave billions behind, create multi-year manufacturing bottlenecks, and grant privileged access to whiter, wealthier nations. This must change—for all medicines and vaccines, not just those invented during this pandemic. Domestically, exorbitant drug prices are an enormous problem that must be addressed beyond this current crisis. If a pharmaceutical corporation refuses to license a product or support transfer of technology and know-how internationally, or if the company refuses to agree to a fair price domestically, President Biden should make use of his existing executive powers to, at the stroke of a pen, license a generic producer. This is the only tactic to ensure prices always come down and that patients always get the medicines they need. The Biden Administration should also include global access and domestic fair pricing clauses in new taxpayer-funded R&D grants. Now that the United States has rejoined the WHO and made a contribution to COVAX, it's time to scale up support for manufacturing, technology, and know-how transfer. Until we help finance vaccine manufacturing hubs and distribution systems strong enough to reach billions more people, COVID-19 will continue to mutate and spread, possibly outrunning the vaccines we have at hand. Smart investments are urgently needed and will last long after the current crisis, once we've built up the industrial capacity already existing in numerous countries across Africa, Asia, and South America. Read More 3. LAUNCH A NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLIMATE JOBS CORP FIGHTING RACIAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISPARITIES Restore decades of disinvestment in public health and in environmental well-being impoverished communities by creating hundreds of thousands of permanent union jobs in community-based social change organizations, preferentially hiring from vulnerable communities impacted by systemic racism and the policies that push pandemic diseases onto the already poor and sick. A Public Health Corps should tackle a broader range of health disparities, such as opioid addiction, homelessness, environmental racism, natural resources restoration and conservation, clean energy, and even rural broadband. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials estimate that at least 300,000 public health jobs are needed, and this number is supported by Obama/Biden CDC Director Tom Frieden’s estimate. They should be paid a living wage (similar to Census Workers) and belong to a union. Rather than being low-level health service providers for government agencies, the Public Health Corps should be organizers, working at community-based advocacy organizations. These jobs should be purpose-built to organize for social change and mobilize to correct systemic and structural problems that have contributed to communities of color being disproportionately poor and sick long before COVID. We must take additional action to repair and heal the country with new protections for essential workers, COVID survivors, and families, including: (1) compensation for victims and survivors of COVID-19, modeled after the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund covering out-of-pocket medical costs, mental health counseling, funerals/burials, pain and suffering, and loss of earnings, while also providing GI-bill style educational benefits; (2) Implement an NIH research agenda for the "25-35% or more " of COVID-19 patients Dr. Anthony Fauci reports having long-term symptoms; (3) There are millions of Americans who are or will be temporarily or permanently disabled by coronavirus. These people need hassle-free life-long disability benefits and other social supports; (4) Pass the Essential Workers Bill of Rights Read More R2H Action, joined by more than 125,000 thousand activist leaders, health workers, scientists, and families impacted by COVID, is fighting for a People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan. This call to action is backed by 1,500 front-line health workers and 450+ organizations. Renowned experts like Professor Jeff Sachs, Professor Ruha Benjamin, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia and Dr. Paul Farmer have joined the call, and are speaking up in town halls, online forums, and op-eds advocating for this plan. In Autumn 2020, R2H Action joined with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ro Khanna to advance the Pandemic Prevention Plan in Congress as a Congressional sign-on letter. After more than 300 grassroots meetings with Members of Congress and tens of thousands of emails and phone calls, 141 Members of Congress endorsed the plan Since then, we've helped draft a dozen bills, joined eight coalitions, enlisted another 120 MOCs on a new letter to President Biden, and are well on our way towards turning this plan into law. These four priority areas are not all that is needed—but we will not succeed unless we tackle these issues. Organizational Endorsers ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSING THE PEOPLE'S PANDEMIC PREVENTION PLAN : As of 11 October 2020 : NAACP • SEIU • Greenpeace USA • United We Dream • Families USA • Religious Action Center • ACT UP • NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice • Indivisible USA • R2H Action [Right to Health] • Friends of the Earth Action • Center for Popular Democracy • Women’s March Action • Marked by COVID • Public Citizen • Union for Reform Judaism (RAC, Religious Action Center) • Rainforest Alliance • Community Catalyst • CAEAR Coalition • Oxfam • Our Revolution • Natural Resources Defense Council • The AIDS Institute • Human Impact Partners • Mighty Earth • NASTAD (National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors) • National Employment Law Project • #VOTEPROCHOICE • Positive Women’s Network USA • Association of Nurses in AIDS Care • AVAC - Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention • Partners In Health • People for the American Way • People's Action • Students for a National Health Program • Global Exchange • Torah Trumps Hate • Dogwood Alliance • Physicians for a National Health Program • Treatment Action Group • Social Security Works • Universal Health Care Action Network • Common Defense • National Women’s Health Network • Coalition on Human Needs • Southern AIDS Coalition • AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families • Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice • National Coalition of STD Directors • African Services Committee • National Partnership for Women & Families • Grey Panthers • Drug Prices are Too High • Clinicians for Progressive Care • End AIDS Now • Community Health Acceleration Partnership • CODEPINK • ADAP Advocacy Association • Center for Biological Diversity • Housing Works Inc. • Iowa CCI (Citizens for Community Improvement) • Physicians Action Network • Progressive Doctors • Community Access National Network (CANN) • Progressive Reform Network • Latino Commission on AIDS • Organizing for Action USA • The Juggernaut Project • Thermo Fisher Scientific • Witness at the Border • Mainers for Accountable Leadership • National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance • Justice is Global • Antibalas! • Southpaw Michigan • San Francisco AIDS Foundation • Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities • American Muslim Health Professionals • The Center for HIV Law and Policy • AIDS Foundation Chicago • Fenway Health Right Care Alliance - MA • Tennessee Anti-Racist Network • Berks Stands Up • 3rd World Matrix • A Space for Healing • A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance • ACT UP Philadelphia • Action Together Bay Area • Action Together Florida • Courage California • Action Together Suncoast • Action Together Walpole • Affordable Homeownership Foundation Inc • Akron Local DSA Akron • Alameda County Health Consortium • Alexander Tenants Association Inc. • Always Looking Up • Amazon Productions • American Security Educators, Inc. • American Voices Abroad Berlin • Amnesty International. Group 213 • Arc Health PBC • Arkansas WAND • Asian Americans for Community Involvement • Banned Books, LLC • Without Walls / Baun Associates • Benedictine Sisters of Baltimore • Benedictine Sisters, Clyde, MO • Berryville Organics • Big Picture Productions • BioMediCon, Inc. • Bolder Benefits, Inc. • Bristlecone Alliance • Broadway Community • Build A Movement 2020 • Butler County Democratic Executive Committee • Calling for Change • Cancer Prevention Daily • Carolina Jews for Justice • Casa de Salud • CDI / Choices for Children • Center for Indian Law • Center For Inquiry • Central Valley Journey 4 Justice • Centre for Environment Human Rights & Development Forum- CEHRDF • Physicians for Social Responsibility - Chicago • Christian Council of Delmarva • Christus Trinity Clinic • Circle of Hope • 7 Toes Productions • Cleveland Power of Wind Action Team • Climate Health Now, California • CO Foundation for Universal Health Care - Candidate Liaison Project for IMFA • Coai, Inc. • Collier Congressional Watchdogs • Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care • Communities of Shalom, Inc. • Communities Without Borders • Community Food and Justice Coalition • Community Health Partnership • Community of St. Francis, San Francisco • Compassionate Toledo • Congregation of St. Joseph • Ka Ipu Ha'a Mentoring Program • Daughters of Charity • Dearborn Art Group • Deep Water Care • Desert Progressives • Dialogue Institute • District 6 Community Planners • Diversity Directions • DSA Health Workers Collective • Earth Evolution • Ecological Rights Foundation • Economic Inequity Health Task Force of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility • ECOregon: The Environmental Concert of Oregon • Educultural Foundation • El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center • EMPOWER India • Empowered Connections • Indivisible Englewood • Eno River Unitarian Universalist Earth Justice Team • Environment and Climate Change Canada • Eons Learning • Extinction Rebellion - UW Chapter (XRUW) • Family Council • Farwell Foundation • First Congregational Church - Littleton United Church of Christ NH • Food for the Cure • Fortunate Farm LLC • Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR) • Free the Caged Children • Fresh Anointing Ministries • Friends of Earth-San Antonio Chapter • Fund Our Future International • FVM Global Magazine • GaiaYana • Garvin County Environmental Group • Gender Action • Georgetown Medical AIDS Advocacy Network (GMAAN) • Global Green Publication and Productions • Global United Voices Network • GlobeMed at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, US • Gloucester Coalition for the Prevention of Domestic Abuse • Good Neighbor Food Pantry of Woodstock NY • Grandmother's Healing Wisdom • Green Earth Goods • Green Party of the Mid-Columbia, WA • H-Peace • Hadassah, Orlando Chapter • Harvard Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association • Hawaii Institute for Human Rights • Health Care For All MA • Health Care New Zealand • Healthcare for All California/PNHP • Heart's Path Healing • Hershey's Mill Nature Group • Hip Kids Pediatrics • Hoboken RESIST • House of Grace • HTLV/XMRV National Registry • Human Ecology Center • id22: Institute for Creative Sustainability • Idaho Veterans Indivisible • iHealth • Immigrant Service Providers Group, Somerville CDC • IMPACT (Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team) • Indian Health Clinics • Indigenous Circle of Flagstaff • Indivisible - Sacramento • Indivisible 49 • Indivisible Acadiana • Indivisible Action Group Upper West Side • Indivisible Anchorage • Indivisible Columbus District 3 • Indivisible District 31 • Indivisible Irvington • Indivisible Lowville • Indivisible San Francisco • Indivisible Sedona • Indivisible South Suburban Communities, Illinois • Indivisible Wooster • Indivisible-Canton MA • Indivisible, Lewisburg, WV • Injoy Pastoral Care • Institute for Creative Living • International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), Fast-Track Cities Institute • International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge • Irish Doctors for Environment • Joining Forces for Education • JP Progressives • Just Faith • Justice For All (JFA) • Ka Ipu Ha'a (The Humble Vessel) • Kamukunji Paralegal Trust (KAPLET) • Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare • Kids First • Kids Talk Climate • Kids That Care Pediatric & Cancer Fund • King-Snohomish Progressive Organization • LA Forward • La Huerta, LLC USA • Las Ventanas • Latinos Salud • League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland • League of Women Voters of New Rochelle • Leonard Peltier Defense Committee • Let’s Kick ASS NY (AIDS Survivor Syndrome) • Liberal Women of Chesterfield County Healthcare Advocacy Committee • Living Beatitudes Community • Longview United Methodist Church • Lumiere Foundation • Lycoming County Progressives • Madoo Ministry • Mariposa Habitat Nursery • Mass ACT • Mass Peace Action • MDavis Consulting LLC • Medafore.com • Medical IMPACT • Medical Whistleblower Advocacy Network • Michigan Coalition for Human Rights • Michigan Teamsters Black Caucus • MillerMedia7 • Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter (MRVAC) • Minority Health International Research Training Program at Rhodes College • MIT Global Health Alliance, Planetary Health Alliance • Monastery of St. Gertrude • Morris Action Coalition • Mothers Out Front-Tompkins • Moving Forward Towards Independence • National Equality Action Team (NEAT) • Nebraskans for Peace • Nelson Mandela TB HIV Community Information and Resource Center • Neponset Health Center • NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice • Nevada County Sunrise • New York Doctors • Nia Impact Capital • NJ Peace Action • Nonviolent Austin • North American Climate Conservation and Environment (NACCE) • Northeast Ohio’s Peoples Leadership Group • Nu Rho Foundation Inc. • NYC Coalition to Dismantle Racism in the Health System • NYS Democratic Committee - Town of Fabius • NYS for Elizabeth Warren • Ocean Conservation Society • One Human Family QCA • Organizing for Action Blue West Valley • Organizing for Action, Tacoma • Our Revolution Long Beach • OWL SF • Pacifica Environmental Family • Panhandle Democrats • Parallax Perspectives • Partners in Health Engage - Harvard Chapter • Partners in Health Engage - Pitt Chapter • Partners in Health Engage Miami • Partners in Health-Engage - UNC Chapter • Pax Christi, Long Island • Peeling Back The Onions Layers Community Education Project • PEER: Progressive East End Reformers • People's Lobby • Persist Chicago • Physicians for a National Health Plan of Western PA • Physicians for a National Health Program - Ventura Chapter • Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme • Physicians for a National Health Program of Western PA • Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter • Physicians for Progress - Ventura County • Physicians for Social Responsibility - AZ Chapter • Planning Alternatives for Change, NYC • Plowshare Peace and Justice Center • Power Together Women’s March • Preserve Giles County • Prevention Access Campaign • Progressive Democrats of America - Orange CA Chapter • Progressive Democrats of America-Tucson AZ Chapter • Progressive Women of Pelham • Project Blueprint • Q Clinic, NYC • Ranck Consulting • RATT Pack (Resistance Action Tuesdays and Thursdays) • Reclaim Augusta • Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens • Rethink Captivity • Revolution Strategy • Right Care Alliance - FL • Rivers Project • ROC Action • Sands Jr Community Development Corp • Sequoia Forest Keeper • Sero Project • Sisters of Mercy, Omaha • Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Sisters of Social Service • Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt New York • Sisters of St. Dominic or Racine Dominicans • Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia • Sisters of St. Joseph, Boston • SKS - Strategic Knowledge Sciences • Sound Solutions • South Florida Audubon Society • Body Politic COVID-19 Virtual Support Group • South Puget Sound Action Network • South Siders for Peace • South End Neighbors for Peace and Justice • Southern DE Alliance for Racial Justice • St. John CME Church • Stand Earth • Strong Heart School • Students for a National Health Program—Weill Cornell Medicine Chapter • Students for a National Health Program, UC Berkeley Chapter • Sustainable Arizona • Sustainable Mill Valley • Swing Left Peninsula • Terra Advocati • The Arc SF • The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic illness • The Ecotopian Society • The Father Walter Outreach Inc. • The Institute for Creative Living • The Queenie Foundation, Inc. • SAMOCRI • Centia Health • The Talented Ten, Inc • The Tree of Life Clinic LLC • The Tucker Schoeman Venture • The Whaleman Foundation • The Writers Workshop of Asheville, NC • Tidewaters Gateway Partnership • Twin Cities Nonviolent • Upper Valley Community Nursing Project • Upper West Side MoveOn • Uptown Progressive Action (NYPAN chapter) • Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences • Veterans For Peace, Chapter 161 • Vivent Health • Ward 8 Woods Conservancy • Water Protectors of Milwaukee • Westchester Disability Advocacy Partnership (WDAP) • Westland Ecumenical Community Food Pantry • White Rabbit Grove RDNA • Win-Win Resolutions • WolfPAC Tennessee • Women Together Global Inc • Women's Health Institute • Worcester NOW • Wyoming Interfaith Network • Xun Biosphere Project • Youth and Women for Opportunities in Uganda • Americas TB Coalition • Care. Test. Protect. • Centre for Health and Development Initiative Africa • National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd • Action Together Stark • DEMSW • Alliance for Development and Population Services • Indivisible St Johns Florida • Global Justice Institute • Good Health Community Programmes • Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) • The Womxn Project • SisterSong: National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective • National Working Positive Coalition • Broward for Progress • Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum • Human Rights Research Documentation Center (HURIC) • LightHouse of Grace • Gaia: The Earth Force United Coalition • Poligon Education Fund • UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose • Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces • Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association • Unitarian Universalist Justice Florida • Cascade AIDS Project • GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality

U.S. COALITION FOR HEALTH AND WILDLIFE URGES JOE BIDEN/CONGRESS TO SUPPORT GLOBAL PANDEMIC PREVENTION FUND WILDLIFE TRADE AND DEFORESTATION ARE LEADING DRIVERS OF NEW DISEASE OUTBREAKS Our lives depend on global action now. March 19, 2021 Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris: On behalf of our tens of millions of supporters across the United States, we, the undersigned organizations, write to request that the Administration adopt strategies and policies critical to addressing the increasing threat of zoonotic disease spillover into human populations. As our increasing population expands into and has more contact with natural habitats and wild animals, and as other current practices continue, our exposure to zoonoses, and potential new pandemics, increases as well. Some future outbreaks are likely to be more deadly than the current pandemic. Some may be more contagious. Some may be both. Without decisive action to strengthen capacity at the front-lines of health and conservation, and to create new and reinforce and improve existing institutional capacity, billions of us are likely to be threatened by another and more dangerous pandemic. Our coalition, the US Wildlife and Health Alliance, includes diverse groups and perspectives, including conservation and environmental organizations, human and animal healthcare advocates, animal welfare and advocacy groups, and biological and biomedical scientists. We are committed to strengthening relationships and building equitable partnerships with diverse stakeholders, to include the many voices working in pandemic prevention and recovery, climate response, conservation, child health, community health, anti-poverty, environmental justice, marginalized communities, tribal nations, and other Indigenous groups and advocates. These recommendations address the clear and compelling connections between human health and the role that our current mode of exploitation of nature plays in the spillover of zoonotic diseases and the rise of global pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in the loss of more than 500,000 lives in America alone, sickened millions more, and wreaked social and economic havoc worldwide. We are grateful that the Administration has committed to address this challenge as a top priority. An effective response to COVID-19 must include a strategy to prevent future pandemics; we cannot merely react when outbreaks flare. Our organizations are committed to partner in the massive public health, environmental, political, and socioeconomic response these crises demand, for now and for our future. We know that the majority of emerging infectious diseases originate in and are transmitted from animals to humans, and that most of these zoonotic diseases originate in wildlife. U.S. response and recovery actions need to center on efforts to prevent zoonotic spillover events, and ensure that global health systems are prepared for and able to respond to disease outbreaks, and to prevent their progression to epidemics or pandemics. For these reasons, we urge the Administration to commit to and implement the following necessary actions: 1. Through Executive action, direct a whole-of-government One Health approach to pandemic prevention, that removes institutional silos, and as need be, creates new institutions, in order to tackle the root causes of zoonotic spillover, including the linkages between biodiversity loss, wildlife trade (legal and illegal), deforestation and habitat degradation, industrialized agriculture, global health, and issues related to extreme poverty, including food insecurity, poor sanitation, limited access to basic services, and food safety and security. 2. Ensure strong funding requests in line with the need to prioritize pandemic risk reduction as part of the Administration’s FY22 Budget Request and supplemental appropriations requests to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, include funding increases for the following programs/accounts: a. USAID Global Health Security programs; b. USAID Biodiversity Conservation programs; c. USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats and Spillover program, including the PREDICT project; d. USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security; e. US Forest Service International Programs; f. US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) International Affairs Program; g. USFWS Office of Law Enforcement; h. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) National Wildlife Disease Program; i. Seed funding for a G7 “Global Pandemic Fund” initiative, scaling to robust annual funding thereafter; and j. State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) and USAID Combating Wildlife Trafficking Programs. 3. Provide $2.5 billion or more to implement community-devised, country-owned plans to halt deforestation and biodiversity loss, including funds for conservation, healthcare, job training and for sustainable economic development alternatives to resource extraction in at least 500 locations within the most impoverished countries and communities worldwide. President Biden called for mobilizing $20 billion for rainforest conservation; fulfilling this campaign goal should be a priority; it will help to stop outbreaks from happening. 4. Commit to funding multilateral agreements that support pandemic prevention programs grounded in bottom-up conservation and land use change, as well as strengthening health systems to meet WHO’s International Health Regulations, to contain outbreaks before they spread, in a minimum of 500 locations within developing countries. 5. Support funding for communities and countries to adopt conservation and preservation policies, verifying compliance in-country and at the customs level, and progressively phasing in U.S. trade restrictions on flora and fauna, including products and supply chain networks, related to overexploitation, fragmentation, and deforestation. 6. Use federal purchasing power to dis-incentivize trade in wildlife, parts, derivatives, or products thereof, as well as supply chains related to, supporting, promoting, or profiting through destructive exploitation, deforestation, or fragmentation, with the goal of phasing out as much as possible within 4 years, and completely ending U.S. sales of products with deforestation or irresponsible wildlife trade in their supply chains within 10 years. Support U.S. Customs enforcement, and fund an independent verification body of conservation stakeholders. 7. Reopen the Global Health Security office at the National Security Council. Appoint a Special Advisor on Pandemic Prevention responsible for examining all institutional capacity and policy areas relevant to pandemic prevention (e.g., wildlife trade, deforestation, agriculture and other land use practices, infrastructure development, carbon emissions, access to medicines and vaccines, and compliance with International Health Regulations), proposing necessary reforms, making policy recommendations to the White House, and working to implement these reforms alongside appropriate government agencies, as well as international partners and UN Agencies. 8. Join the 84 other nations, including many of our allies, as a signatory to the United Nations 2020 Summit on Biodiversity’s Leaders’ Pledge for Nature; develop and execute a National Biodiversity Strategy to implement the actions, commitments, and strategies needed to put biodiversity on the path to recovery and fulfill the Pledge. The inextricable connection between the health and wellbeing of humans, nature, and our planet cannot be overstated. The only effective response to this global pandemic and to future pandemics, as well as to the climate and biodiversity crises, requires that we protect, conserve, restore, and safeguard human rights and equities, and the natural habitats, biodiversity, and ecosystems that support us all. We look forward to working with you and with our diverse coalition of partners and community advocates over the coming months to craft and implement a robust strategy to prevent future pandemics and ensure a healthier future for all of us, for future generations, for our planet, and for all of its species. Respectfully, The US Wildlife and Health Alliance Members (in alphabetical order): Animal Defenders International Bonobo Conservation Initiative Center for Biological Diversity Defenders of Wildlife Endangered Species Coalition International Fund for Animal Welfare Oceanic Preservation Society R2H Action [Right to Health] W estern Watersheds Project WildEarth Guardians Also signed by: Humane Society of the United States Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Friends of the Earth U.S. Marked By COVID Public Citizen African Wildlife Foundation American Bird Conservancy Animal Legal Defense Fund Animal Welfare Institute Born Free USA Cascadia Wildlands Cetacean Society International Cheetah Conservation Fund Christian Council of Delmarva Coastal Plains Institute Conservation Council For Hawaii EarthAction Endangered Habitats League Endangered Small Animal Conservation Fund Environmental Center of San Diego Environmental Investigation Agency USA FOUR PAWS USA Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance Great Old Broads for Wilderness Heartwood Howling For Wolves Humane Society Legislative Fund Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association Inland Ocean Coalition International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute International Student One Health Alliance Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection Natural Resources Defense Council NY4WHALES Ocean Conservation Research One Health Commission One Health Lessons OneNature Partners in Animal Protection & Conservation PawPAC Predator Defense Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Resource Renewal Institute RESTORE: The North Woods Sanctuary Education Advisory Specialists (SEAS) Sierra Forest Legacy Southwest Environmental Center The Lands Council The Rewilding Institute Western Nebraska Resources Council Wyoming Untrapped DOWNLOAD LETTER

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Join Right to Health Action for our All Hands Meeting on Thursday, May 20th. You're invited! Join Right to Health Action for our All Hands Organizing Meeting on Thursday, May 20th at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT. Featuring special guest speaker Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen Global Trade Watch. Register below! During this one-hour event, you'll hear from our keynote speaker, get updates on current R2H campaigns to fight vaccine apartheid and pandemic prevention, and meet other activists fighting for change right in your state. Our All Hands Meeting is for people who are new to Right to Health Action and activists who are already involved in our work. We hope to see you there!

As COVID-19 vaccines become a reality, wealthy world leaders are buying up all the supply. Billions of people in poor countries are being left behind. Two World Health Organization-led programs, COVAX and the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) can fix this. Please sign this petition to urge Joe Biden to rejoin WHO and support it's 189-nation initiative to get free vaccines to more people, faster, and cheaper. By sharing the vaccines the public has paid to invent, licensing generic producers, and expanding manufacturing and distribution capacity worldwide, we can finally bring this pandemic to a definitive end.

FIRST OPINION : Biden should use emergency powers to license Covid-19 vaccine technologies to the WHO for global access BY JONATHAN SHAFFER • MARCH 25, 2021 President Biden’s aggressive new timetable for the sprint to full vaccine availability — his target for crossing the finish line is May 1 — is welcome news for Americans. But it obscures the fact that to truly protect people living in the United States, it’s essential to get shots into the arms of every person on the planet. During the second week of March, the world had a chance to engage in multilateral collaboration to share the vaccine technology necessary to reach global herd immunity. At a general meeting of the World Trade Organization , South Africa and India proposed a waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS). That waiver would have temporarily suspended certain vaccine technology patent monopoly protections during the Covid-19 crisis and enabled access to the “recipe” and manufacturing protocols for effective vaccines to be shared with producers around the world. But it was sabotaged by trade representatives from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and other wealthy countries in the Global North who argued that current intellectual property rights were crucial to maintaining innovation in the drug-development market. Following the WTO’s failure to act, Biden’s best option to lead the world toward equitable vaccine access is by using his executive powers to extricate the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson vaccine patents from the grip of stifling monopolies and license the Covid-19 vaccine technology to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool , which would enable a rapid scale-up of generic vaccine manufacturing worldwide. This would give Biden a chance for a rare triple win: Licensing Covid-19 vaccine technologies to the pool would be a major victory for global social justice, a win for the self-interested American public, and a foreign policy victory for world order and stability. Vaccine apartheid is an apt description of the injustice built into the current and persistent inequalities in vaccine access. The map of current Covid-19 vaccine access overlays neatly onto much older maps of colonial conquest. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report concluded that, “without redistribution of doses already purchased by high-income countries (through donations or other means) and/or increased support for manufacturing or production of additional doses, more than four in ten (41%) adults in the world will not be able to be vaccinated …” Patent protections for pharmaceutical companies like the Pfizer/BioNTech team, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson — whose Covid-19 vaccine development efforts were almost entirely funded by the U.S. and German governments — create unnecessary vaccine scarcity. By hoarding scarce vaccines, the U.S. and other Global North countries all but ensure continued concentration of Covid-19 risk, infection, and death among the most impoverished people in the world. While the U.S. has committed to charitably contributing $4 billion to the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program, which is funding vaccine distribution in the world’s poorest nations, and has given doses to Mexico and Canada, these efforts are a drop in the bucket of what is needed. The best-case scenarios put COVAX at being able to supply only about 20% of the vaccines needed to cover the world’s vulnerable populations. The current arrangement is not simply unjust for the global poor, it is also self-defeating for the wealthy, vaccinated world. By restricting the flow of Covid-19 vaccines, rich countries in the Global North are allowing SARS-CoV-2 to circulate unchecked in poor countries and driving the conditions that accelerate the number of new Covid-19 viral mutations. These variants may be more contagious, more deadly, have the ability to reinfect Covid-19 survivors, and/or be resistant to the vaccines that are currently available. It’s likely just a matter of time before these new variants become dominant in the U.S., undercutting existing protective immunity and dashing the Biden administration’s hopes for a speedy end to this grim chapter in our history. Ensuring that the world gets vaccinated is also a self-interested matter of safeguarding the hard-won protections of the already-vaccinated. The world is beginning to see the political instability engendered by chronic, unchecked Covid-19 transmission. The U.S. is battling crises on all fronts, domestic and international. Accelerating global access to vaccines by licensing existing vaccines to the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool would be an essential and relatively easy win that builds on Biden’s own existing commitment to restoring global cooperation. Brazil’s Covid-19 havoc , ensuing economic collapse, political denialism, and rising instability foreshadows a possible future in which ongoing economic stagnation, mass death, and political dysfunction accelerate global disorder. Biden should listen to people in his own administration, including Anthony Fauci, his chief medical adviser on the pandemic, who recently answered “Yes, yes, and yes” when asked whether the U.S. should join the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool. Biden has repeatedly argued that the U.S. must regain its role as a global leader for justice and stability, and that internationally engaged leadership is the best way to keep Americans safe and prosperous. By licensing available vaccine technologies (which were largely financed by American taxpayers) to the pool, the Biden administration would immediately unlock untapped global vaccine production capacity. With multilateral efforts through the WTO now off the table, the president should use the emergency powers granted to him to bring American leadership once again to the world stage and at the same time avert catastrophe, promote justice, and protect the American people. Jonathan Shaffer is a cofounder of Right to Health Action and a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Boston University.

We've got our work cut out for us in year two to end the pandemic and prevent this catastrophe from ever happening again.

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ORGANIZING TO PANDEMIC-PROOF THE PLANET. Climate change and globalization are making pandemics come faster and get worse. Help us leverage real change, like a crowbar in the cracks of the systems exposed by COVID. YOUR DONATION IMPACT $28 Covers the cost of sending 25,000 petitions demanding action for COVID-19 $99 Funds a training on how to "birddog" politicians in the midterms, putting them on the spot with COVID stories and demands for action $700 One local direct action to protest almost seven million COVID deaths worldwide $46 Staff time costs of getting together one MOC meeting with constituents $350 Pays 1/2 cost for supplies, permits and sometimes bail for one of the in-person direct actions we organize around the country $1000 Covers a stipend for one of our State Captains and Regional Organizers, who organize hundreds of meetings with elected officials every month

MERCH STORE All proceeds fund our fight for a pandemic-free future APPAREL Styles and colors customizable for each design VIEW ALL APPAREL SHOP "Global Vaccine Justice Now." SHOP "COVID-19 was preventable." SHOP "Fight for a pandemic-free future." SHOP "Variants won't stop until the world is vaccinated" SHOP "Variants won't stop until the world is vaccinated" SHOP Tote Bag: "COVID-19 was preventable." ART // CRAFT 100% of proceeds benefitting Right to Health Action SHOP "Health justice is preventing the next pandemic" Block Print - Coral Red Hand-printed signed 11 x 14 inch block print art. Limited edition of 30 prints. Ships in 3-5 business days. SHOP "Health justice is preventing the next pandemic" Block Print - Blue ink H and-printed signed 11 x 14 inch block print art. Limited edition of 30 prints. Ships in 3-5 business days. SHOP "Health justice is preventing the next pandemic" Block Print - Mustard Yellow H and-printed signed 11 x 14 inch block print art. Limited edition of 30 prints. Ships in 3-5 business days. SHOP "Health justice is preventing the next pandemic" Block Print - Moss Green H and-printed signed 11 x 14 inch block print art. Limited edition of 30 prints. Ships in 3-5 business days. SHOP "Health justice is preventing the next pandemic" Block Print - Black ink H and-printed signed 11 x 14 inch block print art. Limited edition of 100 prints. Ships in 3-5 business days.