Share your COVID-19 vaccines, Prince Harry tells rich nations
In first speech since Prince Philip’s funeral, Duke of Sussex joins music icons to call for fairer COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
In his first public appearance since his grandfather’s funeral the Duke of Sussex has urged richer countries to share their stockpiles of coronavirus vaccine.
The duke took to the stage in front of tens of thousands of masked and vaccinated essential workers at a concert in Los Angeles on Sunday night. It raised money for a vaccine equity campaign by the poverty group Global Citizen.
He and the Duchess of Sussex, who is expecting the couple’s second child and was not present, have been at the forefront of the campaign for Vax Live: the Concert to Reunite the World, which will be broadcast in the United States on Saturday night.
The performers included Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Jennifer Lopez, who performed an emotional duet with her mother after telling the audience that they had been unable to spend Christmas together.
The event, hosted by the singer Selena Gomez, was one of the largest legal gatherings in California since the pandemic began. It took place at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the £3.6bn new home of the Rams and Chargers NFL teams.
Prince Harry, 36, struck a sombre note by reminding the crowd that although California could relax its rules, COVID-19 was more deadly than ever elsewhere.
This reaction for Prince Harry in California at #VaxLive is really something
— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) May 3, 2021
Somehow doubt that anyone other than the Queen or his late mother would get similar
pic.twitter.com/pXi07B3b4u
Citing the second wave in India, he said: “The vaccine must be distributed to everyone, everywhere. We cannot rest or truly recover until there is fair distribution to every corner of the world. The virus does not respect borders.”
California has the lowest weekly case rate in the US, four months after emergency services in Los Angeles were brought close to breaking point by the volume of seriously ill patients. Experts partly credit the vaccination campaign.
Harry told frontline workers: “You spent the last year battling courageously and selflessly to protect us all. You served and sacrificed, put yourselves in harm’s way, and acted with bravery, knowing the costs. We owe you an incredible debt of gratitude.”
According to the campaign group Global Citizen the concert raised pounds 38.7 million for Covax, a scheme sending vaccines to low and middle-income countries. The White House said last week that it would share up to 60 million stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine as they become available after a federal safety review. Its regulators have yet to approve the jab for public use.
President Biden and the Pope sent video messages to the concert. “We’re working with leaders around the world to share more vaccines and boost production,” Biden said. “If we get this done we won’t have to miss another moment.”
It was the duke’s first engagement in the US since he and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast in March.
— THE TIMES
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