How We Stop the Pandemic

The Omicron variant of COVID is more transmissible than the Delta, but if we don’t stop them both, there will be even more transmissible and deadlier variants in the future. Any of those could cost us millions of lives around the world—and right here in the U.S. You can help to make certain that doesn’t happen.

Last spring, thanks to hundreds of calls from people like you, we were successful in getting the majority of the members of the Texas Democratic congressional delegation to sign a letter asking President Biden to support a waiver of WTO rules on vaccine patents, so that poor countries could get the vaccines they so desperately need.

Now we’re in round two of trying to get that waiver, and this time, President Biden doesn’t have to be convinced—he’s already announced his support. Additionally, Texas’ own Reps. Doggett and Castro are leading this effort in Congress.

Every Texas congressional Democrat we’re presently asking to support a waiver signed a letter of support last spring— every one of them! In Houston—Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, and Sylvia Garcia; in El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar; and in the Metroplex, Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marc Veasey and Colin Allred.

We must convince them to support a waiver once again.

If you called last week, please call again! If you didn’t, please call now! And it’s perfectly all right to call members who are not your own, or to call more than one representative. For most, contact the trade assistant or legislative director in their Washington office. Use the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121. However, for Rep. Jackson Lee call the district director, Yuroba Harris, in the Houston office, 713-655-1612, and for Rep. Al Green call Rachel Rodriguez, district director, 713-383-9234.

Bullet points for your call:

Last spring Rep. (fill in name) joined other members of Congress to urge the President to ask the World Trade Organization to waive its vaccine patents, but the WTO has not responded
Please urge them to co-sponsor the END THE PANDEMIC resolution. Current co-sponsors include Reps. Castro and Doggett
To sign on, contact Syd Terry in Rep. Schakowsky’s office

Please make these calls!
Millions of lives, not just far away, but here in the U.S., are at stake!

Activists demand the waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines on Nov 30 in Geneva, ahead of a WTO ministerial meeting that has since been cancelled. (Photo: AFP)