Every week at All Saints Church we put our faith into action. This week we are signing a letter to our members of Congress calling on them to back legislation supporting and funding policies and programs aimed at ending the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread at alarming rates both here at home and around the world. As a result, many countries are experiencing increased cases of COVID-19, and death rates are mounting again. At the same time, billions of people in low- and middle-income countries lack access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines while countries like the U.S. have extra doses of these vaccines. The rapid spread and mutation of deadly variants remind us we must take necessary actions to save lives and decrease opportunities for new and dangerous mutations and future outbreaks.

The global vaccine initiative known as COVAX, which was established to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access to every country, has thus far been able to deliver 209 million doses to countries around the world– far short of its goal of delivering 2 billion doses in 2021. COVAX is also facing funding shortfalls and clogged vaccine supply chains.

In June of this year, President Biden announced that the U.S. will donate 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the rest of the world by June of 2022, with 200 million delivered by end of 2021. Altogether, the U.S. has committed to donating a total of 580 million doses, with 110 million doses delivered as of August.

Sharing doses is an important aspect of ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, but donations alone will not meet the urgent global need for these vaccines. Therefore, it is critical that the U.S. works with the international community to bolster and expand vaccine production capacity in different parts of the world to increase availability. Please reach out to your Senator and Representative and urge them to take the following steps to help fight this pandemic:

• Ask President Biden to use all diplomatic leverage at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to encourage other WTO members to support the proposal by India and South Africa, which asks for a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) requirement to scale up COVID-19 vaccine production
• Urge President Biden to end the Defense Production Act restrictions on components needed to produce COVID-19 vaccines to allow current global vaccine manufacturers to ramp up production
• Increase financial contributions to the World Health Organization’s Rapid ACT-Accelerator Delta Response to scale up a comprehensive global response to the pandemic

Our Baptismal Covenant calls us to strive for justice among all people and respect the dignity of all human beings. Since 2003, the General Convention has passed resolutions in support of international programs that alleviate suffering and promote wellbeing for all. Support legislation that will help end the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.

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If instead of signing a letter by using the above links, you would like to sign and mail a copy of the letter made available at the Action Table this Sunday, here is a PDF copy. Here also are links if you need to look up your member of the U.S. House of Representatives or your U.S. Senators, www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

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Reminder: Please vote in the upcoming September 14 Recall Election. If you are a registered voter you should have received a Mail In Ballot. You can fill it in and mail it back now through September 14. It must be postmarked no later than September 14. You can also return it to a Vote by Mail Drop Box or a Voting Center when they open up 10 days before the election. If you are not registered to vote, you can do so on line now or at a Voting Center when they open September 4. Go on line at LAVote.net for all information regarding voting.