The United Methodist Church reports on Jubilee USA's efforts for global vaccine access. Read an excerpt below and click here for the full article. 

The Need for Worldwide Vaccine Access: Citizens of many countries are unprotected as COVID-19 cases rise.

By Linda Bloom

United Methodist and other faith leaders view access to the COVID-19 vaccine as a human right, along with other basic health care needs.

But citizens in many countries remain unprotected from the coronavirus as multinational efforts to increase vaccine availability have fallen short. The total number of known coronavirus cases worldwide has now surpassed 200 million.

The Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, was among the religious leaders who met virtually Aug. 4 with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to express support for waiving vaccine patents to increase COVID vaccine access for developing countries.

The meeting with Tai was organized by Jubilee USA and Eric LeCompte, its executive director, said Tai understood the urgency of the situation. “Waiving vaccine COVID patents will help produce more vaccines and save lives in the developing world,” he said.

 

Read more here.