A vaccine for everyone

For a fairer worldwide distribution of Covid-vaccines!

Apparently we will continue to make significant progress in the fight against the Covid epidemic in the coming months. A number of countries, including Belgium, are indeed well on the way, but most of the world is not. Of the nearly 1 billion vaccines that have already been administered, 80% went to the richer countries. In the developing countries, the distribution of vaccines has not yet started effectively. The world will not really recover from this pandemic until everyone everywhere has been given the opportunity to be vaccinated. Not all countries have been able to negotiate firmly about the supply of vaccines and not everywhere enough resources are available to purchase vaccines.

With some supporters, we have recently launched the campaign 'A Vaccine for Everyone', under the wings of the King Baudouin Foundation, a citizens' initiative that aims to purchase extra vaccines for the poorer world population through donations from ordinary citizens, within the worldwide COVAX vaccination program.

Depending on the manufacturer, a vaccine that we as Belgians receive free of charge costs the Belgian state between 1.78 and 14.8 euros. The global COVAX program pays an average of 5,2 dollars (4.3 euros) for its vaccines. A suggestion could be to donate (part of) the price of your own vaccine so that other people in the world may receive a vaccination.

In the first place, we consider this corona pandemic as an invitation for concrete global solidarity between the more and the less well-off people and countries. It is our mission to take care of each other on this planet. Meanwhile we have been somewhat surprised by the enthusiasm with which this project was received by various organizations and persons we have contacted. This is truly a different voice amid the current predominantly "My home country first" sentiment. Moreover, it makes no sense whatsoever to just safeguard our own country or continent. The virus continues to spread worldwide and the longer the pandemic lasts, the more likely new and more contagious mutations are.

Initiators:

Marc Eneman, Psychiatrist, Leuven. marc.eneman@yahoo.com 0497 754380

Elisabeth Eneman, Lawyer, Leuven. eli_eneman@hotmail.com

Herman Wouters, Master in Special Education and volontair Medics without Vacation h.wouters@worldonline.be 0473 531071

Erik Hendriks, Advisor TV-Sylvester, Lommel erik.hendriks@sylvester.be

Renier Nijskens, Honorary ambassador and president of the Royal Belgian-African Union KBA, Dinant. reniernijskens@yahoo.com

Contact Dutch and English language: Herman Wouters and Marc Eneman

Contact French language: Renier Nijskens reniernijskens@yahoo.com

More information can be found on the website of A vaccine for everyone: https://www.sites.google.com/view/avaccineforeveryone

Contributions may be paid into the account

BE10 0000 0000 0404 of the King Baudouin Foundation

with the structured message: +++ 623/3640/20093 +++