NEW YORK, May 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International
advocacy organization Global Citizen tonight
announced that the VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the
World campaign helped mobilize over 26 million
COVID-19 vaccine doses and $302
million to the ACT-Accelerator to provide equitable access
to COVID-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and other medical
tools to the world's most marginalized communities and
healthcare workers on the frontlines.
VAX LIVE was taped at SoFi Stadium for a COVID 19-compliant
audience composed of fully-vaccinated frontline healthcare and
essential workers, and is the first large-scale music event held at
the stadium. The goal of the VAX LIVE campaign was to ensure
everyone, everywhere has access to COVID-19 vaccines and inspire
vaccine confidence worldwide.
Selena Gomez served
as host of the special and Prince
Harry and Meghan, The Duke and
Duchess of Sussex, served as Campaign Chairs. Performers
included Jennifer Lopez,
Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin
and H.E.R. Special appearances were made by President Biden,
First Lady Dr Biden and Vice President Harris along with
Ben Affleck, Chrissy
Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle
King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo
Mbatha, Olivia Munn and Sean Penn.
The VAX LIVE campaign called on governments to begin sharing
vaccine doses immediately, and for pharmaceutical companies such as
Moderna, to urgently provide millions of doses to the poorest
nations at cost pricing. And to help ensure equitable access to the
vaccine, Global Citizen and its partners led a coordinated drive
across the private sector to raise critical funds - "dollars for
doses" - for the vaccine-sharing program COVAX AMC.
VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the
World received messages of support and commitments from
His Holiness Pope Francis, President of the United States Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, Vice-President of the United States Kamala Harris, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister
of Canada Justin Trudeau, as well as Prime Minister
Plenković of Croatia Andrej
Plenković, New Zealand Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern,
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Italian Prime Minister
Mario Draghi, and European
Commision President Ursula von der
Leyen, Prime Minister of Norway Erna
Solberg, UAE Minister of State for International
Cooperation Her Excellency Reem al Hashimy and Minister of
Health of Portugal Marta
Temido.
Commitments announced through the course of the VAX LIVE
campaign and special included:
GOVERNMENT COMMITMENTS
- Canada: CAD 375 million [$299.2
million] towards the ACT-Accelerator for COVID-19 vaccines,
tests and treatments to support countries in need.
- Norway: will share all of its
surplus doses, an additional 4.5 million doses on top of the
700,000 doses it has already committed. This translates to one dose
being shared for every Norwegian Citizen.
- Spain: will donate 7.5 million
COVID-19 vaccine doses for the Latin American and Carribean
region.
- The UAE: will donate 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and
support the delivery of 25 million doses.
- New Zealand: will share an
additional 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses for a total of
1.2M for the South Pacific
region.
- Croatia pledged €500,000
[$600,000] to COVAX and will start
donating 50,000 doses before the end of June.
- Portugal: will bring forward
the delivery of its commitment to provide 1 million doses to
Portuguese speaking countries to begin in June 2021.
- Italy: expressed its
intentions to make a substantial new pledge to COVAX soon.
Italy will also use its G20
presidency to boost global manufacturing capacity.
PHILANTHROPIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR COMMITMENTS
Philanthropic and corporate commitments raised $39.6 million
for COVAX, which was matched by GAVI for an additional
$23.6 million, resulting in a
total of $63.3 million, enough to
acquire 12.66 million vaccines. Combined with government
pledges this amounts to over 26 million vaccine doses to those most
in need.
SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS MADE TOWARD THE COVAX AMC FOR
PROCUREMENT OF VACCINES:
- Mastercard will be contributing $25 million
- Cisco will be contributing $5
million
- Procter & Gamble will be contributing $5 million
- The Analog Devices Foundation will be contributing
$1 million
- Seadream Family Foundation will be contributing
$1 million
- Stanley Black &
Decker will be contributing $1
million
- Coca-Cola Foundation will be contributing
$500 thousand
- Spotify will be contributing $500 thousand
- Alight Solutions will be contributing
$250 thousand
- Centene Charitable Foundation will be contributing
$250 thousand
- BlackBerry will be contributing $160 thousand
COMMITMENTS MADE TOWARD THE WHO COVID-19 SOLIDARITY FUND FOR
MEDICAL TOOLS AND SUPPLIES INCLUDED:
- Accenture will be contributing $1
million
- Terumo will be contributing $1
million
- Spotify will be contributing $500 thousand
Overall, $65.8M has
been mobilized through VAX LIVE by philanthropists, the private
sector, and the Gavi matching mechanism in commitments to vaccine
procurement, medical tools and supplies.
"We have been overwhelmed by the support for VAX LIVE,
from governments, philanthropists, the private sector, our campaign
chairs, and Global Citizens from across the world, who have joined
forces to mobilize critical COVID-19 vaccines where they are needed
urgently," said Hugh Evans, CEO
of Global Citizen. "But more needs to be done especially from
G7 nations that have yet to commit to sharing any doses. The UK
alone will have 113 million surplus doses. We need to continue our
efforts to urge the chair of the G7, Boris
Johnson, the rest of the G7 and G20 nations, and vaccine
manufacturers to share additional doses urgently to help ensure
equitable vaccine access globally."
VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the
World aired on ABC, ABC News Live,
CBS, FOX, and streamed
on YouTube, iHeartMedia broadcast radio
stations and the iHeartRadio App. VAX LIVE also aired
on AXS TV, Albavision across Latin
America, Multishow from Globo Group in Brazil, Caracol TV in Colombia, TV Azteca in Mexico, S3 in South Africa, Canal+ and
MultiChoice across Africa,
Sky in the UK, Network 10 in Australia, CSTAR (Canal + Group) in
France, the Viacom 18
network across India and
South Asia, and Insight TV
globally. As the exclusive global streaming
partner, YouTube also streamed an extended
version of VAX LIVE on the Global Citizen channel for a full
run-time of 90 minutes.
Global Citizen also announced commitments from longtime partner
of Global Citizen, Live Nation, along with the NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLS,
NHL, WWE, Formula 1, NASCAR and MLB to commit tickets to some of
the most amazing live events of the coming year! These leagues have
been working together to follow enhanced COVID-19 guidelines to
ensure that audience members can once again enjoy live events
safely. The announcement was made public during the broadcast by
Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel, and viewers can secure tickets
by visiting globalcitizen.org/reunite.
VAX LIVE has also received support from in-kind supporters,
including: Ads4Change, Bandsintown, Boo! Media, Boom Broadcast,
Damon Peirson, Enhance Outdoor,
Elev8 Media, Entertainment Industry Foundation, iKahan Media,
Interstate Outdoor, JCDecaux, JCDecaux Nigeria, Mass Media, Narcity
Media, New Tradition, New York Times,
Ocean London, Outfront Media, Penske Media, Seen Media Group,
Van Wagner, Vector Media, and XP
Digital.
VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the
World was part of Global Citizen's overall
2021 Recovery Plan for the World, a year-long campaign
and series of events that aims to help end COVID-19 for all, end
the hunger crisis, resume learning everywhere, protect the planet
and advance equity for all.
For more information about VAX LIVE: The Concert to
Reunite the World,
visit globalcitizen.org/vaxlive and follow @glblctzn on
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
ABOUT GLOBAL CITIZEN:
Global Citizen is
the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers
dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. With over 10 million
monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting
change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. We post,
tweet, message, vote, sign, and call to inspire those who can make
things happen to act — government leaders, businesses,
philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives.
By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic
causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn
rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over
the world. To date, the actions of our community, along with
high-level advocacy efforts and work with partners, has resulted in
commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at
$48.4 billion, affecting the lives of
more than 880 million people. During last year's Global Citizen
hosted campaigns, One World:
Together at Home and Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, we
mobilized over $1.5 billion in cash
grants, with over $1.1 billion being
already disbursed. For more information,
visit GlobalCitizen.org.
CONTACT:
Global Citizen
Inquiries: media@globalcitizen.org
Media Inquiries: Sunshine
Sachs on Behalf of Global
Citizen, gc@sunshinesachs.com
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content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/26-million-covid-19-vaccine-doses-mobilized-through-global-citizens-vax-live-the-concert-to-reunite-the-world-from-governments-philanthropists--the-private-sector-plus-an-additional-302m-for-medical-tools-through-the-act-acce-301287047.html
SOURCE Global Citizen