Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Vaccine efforts must go global

For most Americans, receiving the COVID-19 vaccination is a simple process. You walk into your local grocery store or health center and leave with your first vaccination in less than 30 minutes. Within weeks, the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family becomes reality.

Meanwhile, many low-income countries are imposing new lockdowns to stop a third wave of COVID-19 infections because they’ve been denied access to COVID-19 vaccines. And now they are dealing with the highly infectious delta variant. Across Africa, just 1% of the population has been vaccinated, yet no world leader has proposed a solution. Everyone deserves to have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, no matter where they live.

President Biden and Congress must lead a global effort to bring together industry, governments, and global health institutions to urgently increase the supply and distribution of vaccines. If the U.S. and other countries work together, we can vaccinate the world.