Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle will co-chair a fundraising concert urging more vaccinations that will air on May 8, in which US President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris will also participate, event organisers announced on Tuesday.
The event named ‘Vax Live: The Concert To Reunite The World’ will feature stars, including Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, J Balvin and HER.
Put on by Global Citizen, an international advocacy organisation, the campaign is pushing businesses to “donate dollars for doses,” and for G7 governments to share excess vaccines.
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It also urges pharmaceutical companies “including Moderna to make vaccines available at not-for-profit prices.”
The concert will be pre-taped on May 2 in Los Angeles and will stream on YouTube along with American television networks ABC and CBS on May 8 at 8 pm ET.
It will also air internationally on Brazil’s Globo, Colombia’s Caracol, SABC in South Africa and MultiChoice in Africa.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also appear at the event, whose audience will comprise of fully vaccinated frontline and essential workers.
“Over the past year, our world has experienced pain, loss, and struggle together. Now we need to recover and heal together,” Harry and Meghan said in a statement.
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“We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer when everyone everywhere has equal access to the vaccine. We must pursue equitable vaccine distribution, and in that, restore faith in our common humanity. This mission couldn’t be more critical or important.”
Last year Global Citizen partnered with the World Health Organization to put on a virtual concert packed with A-listers like The Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift, to celebrate health workers and fundraise for the battle against COVID-19.