Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan have announced they’ll be chairing the upcoming “Vax Live: Concert To Reunite The World.”
What is this exactly?
It’s a fundraising concert put on by international advocacy organisation Global Citizen, calling on businesses to “donate dollars for doses” and for G7 governments to share their excess vaccines with other countries so that everyone can have equitable access to the COVID-19 shots.
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“Over the past year, our world has experienced pain, loss, and struggle – together. Now we need to recover and heal – together,” the Duke and Duchess said in a statement.
“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.”
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The concert will be hosted by multi-platinum recording artist, actress and entrepreneur Selena Gomez and we’ll get to see performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin and H.E.R.
We’re also hearing there will be appearances from some of the biggest names in the world including Sean Penn, Chrissy Teigen and Ben Affleck as well major political figures like U.S President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Sounds awesome, right?
The initiative is already making huge waves:
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$11.5 million (US) in commitments have been made by major corporations to fund the purchase of an estimated 2.3 million vaccine doses for health workers.
Spain announced the donation of an estimated 7.5 million vaccine doses as soon as 50% of the Spanish population is vaccinated.
And France recently announced they’d share doses for health workers across Africa with an initial donation of 100,000 this month and at least 500,000 by June.
The concert will also call on big pharma companies including Moderna to make vaccines available at non-for-profit prices.
So how do we watch this special event?
It’ll be streamed on YouTube and American television networks ABC and CBS on Saturday, May 8 at 8:00pm ET. But if you’re in Australia like me, you can tune in to Global Citizen’s YouTube Channel on Sunday 9th May at 10:00am AEST.
And a quick shoutout to Melbourne boy Hugh Evans, the man who founded Global Citizen and is making this happen, for all of us.
(Feature Image Credit: Photo by ComposedPix/Shutterstock.com)