FEATURING JOANNE LIN – As the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic this week marks a grim tally of deaths in the United States and internationally, it seems hard to imagine that there is an end in sight. But several promising vaccines with high efficacy rates offer a glimpse of ending the pandemic. So far about 300 million vaccine doses have been dispensed in more than 100 countries. But demand is far higher than supply.

In the United States, which is among the hardest hit nations and which has the highest total death toll, the vaccination rate has jumped and President Joe Biden has taken steps to force pharmaceutical companies to deliver vaccines faster. But has he gone far enough? Several international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Oxfam are demanding what they call “A People’s Vaccine.” 

Find more information at https://peoplesvaccine.org/.

Joanne Lin, directs Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy and Government Affairs Department.

** This segment was originally broadcast on March 10, 2021.