Global Citizen has announced Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex as Campaign Chairs of VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World, a campaign calling on businesses to donate dollars for doses, G7 governments to share excess doses immediately, and for pharma companies to make vaccines available at not-for-profit prices.
VAX LIVE will take place on Sunday, 2 May at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The first large-scale music event to be held for a COVID-compliant audience of fully-vaccinated frontline workers, VAX LIVE will be used to call on governments, the private sector and philanthropists to commit towards securing the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The event will air Saturday, May 8, 2021 on MultiChoice’s 1Magic and on the SABC’s Channel S3 in South Africa, which broadcasts throughout Africa, and livestream on YouTube.
Hosted by multi-platinum recording artist, actress, and producer Selena Gomez, the VAX LIVE broadcast special on May 8 will feature musical performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin, and H.E.R. Special guests from around the world will also speak about the importance of vaccine equity, including Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn, and Sean Penn.
The statement issued Tuesday, reads in parts, “While many countries have begun rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, the pandemic is far from over.”
The Organizers say, “more than 1 billion doses have been administered worldwide, but low-income nations continue to lag behind due to inequitable access to vaccines and a surge in daily coronavirus cases. Health care systems are struggling to accommodate the influx of people needing medical attention, particularly in India where hospitals are running out of oxygen supplies and asking for aid, according to the New York Times.”
VAX LIVE will call on governments to donate doses and resources to address the world’s coronavirus needs. As the first large-scale music event for a COVID-19-compliant audience of fully vaccinated frontline health care and essential workers, the broadcast special will call on world leaders to pledge a total of $19 billion — the outstanding balance needed by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ACT-Accelerator to get 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, as well as tests and treatments, to the world’s poorest countries by the end of 2021.
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.
