LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly 200 prominent leaders from around the world—including several presidents and prime ministers—have signed an open letter calling on governments to make a “never again” pledge and renounce pandemic profiteering and vaccine nationalism. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) supports the letter and echoes its conclusion, “It is time to embed justice, equity, and human rights in pandemic preparedness and response.” AHF has been fighting for equitable access to medicines since the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic and, most recently, by launching a Vaccinate Our World campaign in 2021.
“Millions of people lost their lives to COVID-19, and millions more die of treatable diseases every year because they cannot afford lifesaving treatments. This tragedy is fundamentally a question of political will, not scarcity or a lack of resources,” said AHF Deputy Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy Loretta Wong. “Some parts of the world were pouring excess vaccines down the drain, while others had none for over a year. So now governments must decide, deliberately and proactively, whether the lives of millions are worth more than pharma profits; otherwise, the world will continue repeating the same catastrophic mistakes.”
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.