Open Letter to the Prime Minister on Global Vaccine Equity

The Canadian Public Health Association has just penned an open letter to the Government of Canada calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to dedicate a greater degree of resources to supporting the equitable global supply of vaccines. The Letter highlights some practical ways that Canada can lead in supporting global vaccine equity.

Canada has fallen short in delivering on its vaccine donation commitments and frequently provides inadequate notice and insufficient associated supplies for low-resource health settings to be able to get shots into arms in an orderly fashion before vaccine expiry dates.

Open letter to Justin Trudeau requests that Canada:

1. Support the TRIPS Waiver
2. Donate surplus vaccine doses to COVAX
3. Permanent suspension of intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 Vaccines

READ THE OPEN LETTER TO JUSTIN TRUDEAU

Open letter to G20 Heads of State and Government on Vaccine Accessibility

Individuals around the world have faced numerous unique challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. For people around the world, this struggle has been compounded by conflict, climate crises, socio-economic hardship, displacement, and human rights violations.

This open letter by the UNHCR urges swift action to ease the pandemic’s effects:

1. Increasing vaccine supplies for the world’s poorest
2. Ensuring access to vaccines for all people on the move
3. Supporting low- and middle-income countries to combat COVID-19 with all available means

“It is a stark reality that some of the world’s poorest countries shoulder the greatest responsibility for supporting displaced people and other people on the move. They need a reliable and adequate supply of vaccines and other critical supplies to stabilise their fragile and over-burdened health systems, to help save the lives of their citizens, migrants, as well as refugees and other displaced people they host.”

– Filippo Grandi, António Vitorino, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

READ THE OPEN LETTER TO JUSTIN TRUDEAU