The couple teamed up with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to pen an open letter to G20 Summit leaders, who will convene in Rome this weekend for the purpose of expanding vaccine-access to low-income nations.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Remind World Leaders of Their Promise to Expand Vaccine Access
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are not giving up on their fight for global vaccine access to the COVID-19 vaccine. In an open letter to world leaders, the couple called the attention of world leaders back to their promise to get vaccines to poorer countries and bring the world closer to ending the global pandemic.
They also addressed equal distribution and access to the vaccines.
“When the leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations met at the G7 Summit in June, they collectively announced that 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be sent to low- and low-and-middle-income countries to help vaccinate the world. Pharmaceutical companies have pledged almost the same,” the open letter published on WHO’s website stated. “Yet, as several nations still don’t even have enough vaccines for their own health workers, the world is left asking: Where are the doses?”
“Of the almost 7 billion doses that have been administered globally, just 3 percent of people in low-income countries have had a jab so far. Where are the rest?” they continued. “COVAX, the initiative designed to help achieve fair global access to COVID vaccines, has been promised 1.3 billion doses to be donated for the low-income countries it supports, yet it has been able to ship only 150 million — 11.5 percent — to date. Where are the rest?”
40-year-old Meghan and 37-year-old Prince Harry added that every dose of the vaccine that goes to waste “should outrage us all.”
“Each dose represents a real person — a mother, father, daughter, or son — who could have been protected,” they said. “Each of us come from very different places, backgrounds, and life experiences, but we share a common goal: to tackle global inequity.”
They concluded the letter by calling for unity: “Cooperation of historic proportion is the only solution. Lives literally depend on it.”
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