Letter to the editor: Covid vaccine must be people's vaccine

A safe, effective and accessible covid-19 vaccine can help bring an end to today’s economic and health crisis — so our families are safe, so we can get back to work and live our lives again. But only if everyone has access to it.

Despite largely being funded by public money, Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines have yet to make the necessary commitments to ensure global production and global access for a covid-19 vaccine.

That’s why I joined more than 100 leaders from public health, faith-based, racial justice and labor organizations, as well as economists and artists, in a public letter calling on President-elect Joe Biden to make all covid-19 vaccines a people’s vaccine: a global public good, freely and fairly available to all, prioritizing those most in need here at home and around the world.

A people’s vaccine is a medical necessity, an economic priority and a moral imperative.

Claudine Schneider

Boulder, Colo.

The writer, a Clairton native, is a Republican former U.S. representative and member of Republicans for Integrity.