Add your name to my petition if you agree: We must demand that every Republican and every Democrat in the Senate finally cast votes on the most important issues facing our country.

 

Here is the political dilemma that we face.

This year we have brought forth, through the Build Back Better Act, an agenda that in an unprecedented way addresses the long-neglected needs of the working families of our country who are struggling through the worst public health crisis in 100 years. And this is an agenda which is enormously popular.

Yes. The American people want to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs, significantly improve home health care, expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision needs, lower the rate of childhood poverty, provide affordable child care and build the affordable housing we desperately need.

Yes. The American people want us to save the planet for future generations and create hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

Yes. The American people want us to reform a regressive tax system which, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, enables some of the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in the country to pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Yes. That’s what the American people want. That’s what the U.S. House of Representatives want. That’s what 48 members of the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus want.

But that’s not what any Republican Senator wants. That’s not what two Democratic Senators, Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, want.

After six months of “negotiating” behind closed doors with these two conservative Democratic Senators there is widespread understanding that this strategy has failed not only from a policy point of view, but politically as well. The base of the Democratic Party is now demoralized and, according to many polls, Republicans stand a strong chance of winning the House and the Senate in the 2022 elections.

We need a new direction, a new approach. We need to show the American people that we are prepared to stand up and fight for the working families of this country. We need to take on the powerful special interests and their lobbyists who oppose every major initiative that threatens their wealth and power. We need to demand that every Republican and every Democrat in the Senate finally cast votes on the most important issues facing our country. No more backroom negotiations. No more endless conversations. Let the American people know where their Senators stand and who is prepared to fight for their interests. And that’s not just Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema.

As the recent outcome on the Voting Rights bill clearly shows, today’s Republican Party has become an anti-democracy party doing all it can to make it harder for American citizens to vote and participate in the political process. But that’s not all. Republicans have also become an extremely reactionary party focused on tax breaks for billionaires, ignoring the reality of climate change, working overtime to keep the cost of prescription drugs high and denying people the health care they need during the middle of a global pandemic.

So yes, we must continue to work to pass the Build Back Better agenda.

But we must also bring important pieces of legislation that improve life for working families on to the floor of the Senate, and if Republicans (and a few Democrats) want to vote against them, that is their right. They will then have to explain their votes to their constituents. That’s called democracy.

Let the American people see that not one single Republican will vote to permanently expand the $300 per child direct monthly payments for working families that reduced the childhood poverty rate by 40% but expired on December 15.

Let the American people see that not one single Republican will vote to create millions of good paying jobs to combat the existential threat of climate change.

Let the American people see that not one single Republican will vote to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Let the American people see that not one single Republican will vote to lower prescription drug costs by empowering Medicare to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry.

Let the American people see that not one single Republican will vote to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision.

Let the American people see not one single Republican will vote to expand home health care, repeal the Trump tax cuts, pass paid family and medical leave, universal Pre-K and the right to organize.

Let the American people see what is happening.

Let the American people know there is a stark and clear choice between the parties.

And then let the American people vote.

I’d love to hear if you agree:

Sign my petition if you agree we must make Republicans vote on expanding direct monthly payments, tackling climate change, raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicare, and more.

We are at a crossroads in the coming election. We can either continue down the current course and face likely defeat in November. Or we can stand up, fight for working families and show the country how reactionary and out-of-touch the Republican Party is.

What do you think?

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

ADD YOUR NAME

 

Paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders

PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402

Child hunger rates are down 24%

 

About one month ago, the first payments of the child tax credit went out to millions of families. For the first time in U.S. history, families with kids are getting monthly payments to help cover the costs of raising a child—which is an investment that’ll make our country and economy stronger.

And now that the first round of payments is out, the research is clear: Families with kids are using pandemic relief to buy more food.

Before the first round of tax credit payments hit bank accounts in mid-July, about 11% of households with children reported that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past week.

After the payments were distributed, the rate dropped to just over 8%. This is a decrease of nearly 24%, which is the lowest rate recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. ^[1]

No doubt about it: The child tax credit is cutting child poverty while making it easier for families to put food on the table—which will make our economy stronger for years to come.

But if you’re a child in a single parent household, your parent is less likely to get this critical tax credit. And in some cases, they may even get a smaller amount than children who are living in families with two parents.

As one of the only single moms in Congress, I’m proud to be in Washington fighting for working families—including working families headed by single parents—because all our children deserve the same amount of support from their government.

Thank you for all that you do,

Katie

 

^{[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/12/child-tax-credit-hunger-rates-504258}

Paid for by Katie Porter for Congress

 Our campaign is powered by grassroots supporters chipping in to emails just like this one. 

To contribute via check, please address to: Katie Porter for Congress, PO Box 5176, Irvine, CA 92616

 

RSN: Norman Solomon | Bernie Sanders Has Bonded With President Biden. Is That Good?

 

 

15 July 21

You Picked an Organization That Challenges Injustice

It’s what we do all day, every day. When you come here to “Reader Supported News” and ignore the organization’s funding, that is unfair and it is unjust. We will absolutely challenge that, too.

We must have your help to do this. Right now you are not providing it.

Unfair, unjust.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

 

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611

Follow us on facebook and twitter!

Update My Monthly Donation

 

15 July 21

Live on the homepage now!
Reader Supported News

IF IT NEEDS TO BE A BATTLE FOR BASIC FUNDING, LET’S DO IT. We have to have a basic budget. We’re going nowhere without it. For some reason the vast majority of our readers seem to demand free service. If we have to fight with the people who come here for easily achievable basic funding, then so be it. We need help to keep RSN going. Please.
Marc Ash • Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

 

RSN: Norman Solomon | Bernie Sanders Has Bonded With President Biden. Is That Good?
Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "So far, most of the Biden presidency has been predictable. Its foreign policy includes bloated Pentagon spending and timeworn declarations that the United States should again 'lead the world' and 'sit at the head of the table.'"

o far, most of the Biden presidency has been predictable. Its foreign policy includes bloated Pentagon spending and timeworn declarations that the United States should again “lead the world” and “sit at the head of the table.” Many corporate influence peddlers have settled into jobs in upper reaches of the executive branch. The new administration has taken only baby steps toward student debt relief or progressive taxation. On health care, the White House keeps protecting the interests of insurance companies while rebuffing public opinion that favors Medicare for All.

And yet – Joe Biden is no longer on the narrow corporate road that he traveled during five decades in politics.

President Biden’s recent moves to curtail monopolies have stunned many observers who – extrapolating from his 36-year record in the Senate – logically assumed he would do little to challenge corporate power. Overall, Biden has moved leftward on economic policies, while Sen. Bernie Sanders – who says that “the Biden of today is not what I or others would have expected” decades ago – has gained major clout that extends into the Oval Office.

This month has seen a spate of news stories about Sanders’ new political leverage, not only as chair of the Senate Budget Committee but also due to his close working relationship with Biden. Under the headline “Vermont’s Longtime Outsider Has Become a Trusted Voice in the Biden White House,” CNN summed up: “The Biden-Sanders connection is not a love story; it’s more a marriage of convenience. But as Biden pushes an unprecedented progressive White House agenda, it’s crucial.” Sanders told the network that Biden “wants to be a champion of working families, and I admire that and respect that.”

But if Biden is pushing “an unprecedented progressive White House agenda,” it’s a high jump over a low bar. Leaving aside President Lyndon Johnson’s short-lived Great Society program that was smothered by Vietnam War spending, no White House agendas since the 1940s really merit the term “progressive.” And the current president hardly passes as “a champion of working families” unless he’s graded on an unduly lenient curve.

One danger of Bernie’s tight political embrace of Biden is that “progressive” standards will be redefined downward. Another danger is that Biden’s international policies and conformity to militarism will be further swept off the table of public debate.

For instance, targeting Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and other disfavored nations, Biden continues to impose sanctions that are killing many thousands of people each month, with children especially vulnerable. A truly progressive president would not do such a thing.

Meanwhile – despite strong efforts by Sanders, some other lawmakers, and many human-rights activists – Biden is still abetting Saudi Arabia’s warfare in Yemen that continues to cause the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. “While he is a welcome change from the incompetence, venality, and cruelty of the Trump administration,” epidemiologist Aisha Jumaan and attorney Charles Pierson wrote days ago, “Biden has continued the Obama and Trump administrations’ support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen.” A truly progressive president would not do such a thing.

And then there’s the enormous U.S. military budget, already bloated during the Trump years, which Biden has opted to raise. A truly progressive president would not do such a thing.

There is political and moral peril ahead to the extent that Bernie Sanders – or others who oppose such policies – feel compelled to tamp down denunciations of them in hopes of reaping progressive results by bonding, and not polarizing, with Biden.

In the aftermath of his two presidential campaigns that achieved huge political paradigm shifts, Sanders is now in a unique position. “Sanders already influenced a leftward shift in the Democratic Party through his time on the campaign trail in 2016 and 2020,” Bloomberg News reported last week. “Biden has embraced a series of progressive priorities, including an expanded child tax credit and subsidies for clean energy, and made an attempt at increasing the national minimum wage earlier this year.”

Sanders routinely combines his zeal for the art of the morally imperative with the art of the possible. So, four months ago, he helped push the American Rescue Plan through the Senate and onto Biden’s desk for signing. It resulted in upwards of 160 million direct cash payments to individuals, but did not boost the minimum wage. Sanders commented: “Was it everything we wanted? No. Was it a major step for the working class of this country. You bet it was.”

His approach has been similar this week in the midst of negotiations for a multitrillion-dollar budget plan. After a private White House meeting with Biden that Sanders called a “very good discussion,” the senator told reporters: “He knows and I know that we’re seeing an economy where the very, very rich are getting richer while working families are struggling.”

For genuine progressives, the Sanders-Biden bond is positive to the extent that it helps sway the president’s policies leftward – but negative to the extent that it restrains Sanders, and others in his extended orbit, from publicly confronting Biden about policies that are antithetical to the values that the Bernie 2020 presidential campaign embodied. Today, Sanders’ role is appreciably and necessarily different from the needed roles of grassroots movements that have inspired and been inspired by him.

Progressives cannot and should not be satisfied with the policies of the Biden presidency. Yet breakthrough achievements should not be denied.

At the end of last week, Public Citizen’s president Robert Weissman sent out a mass email hailing big news about Biden’s executive order on monopolies. Noting that Biden “tasked agencies throughout his administration with helping to level the playing field for consumers, workers, and small businesses,” Weissman declared: “Joe Biden just took the most significant action any president has taken in generations to confront the menace of corporate monopolies.”

An exaggeration? Hyperbolic? I wondered. So, I asked a leading progressive economist, Dean Baker.

“I think the enthusiasm is warranted,” Baker replied. “Biden laid out pretty much everything that he could do in terms of executive action. In many cases, everything will depend on the implementation, and also what the courts will buy.” The executive order’s provisions will be legally contested. “But some of these items are a really big deal. In the case of imported prescription drugs, you could easily be talking about [saving] $100 billion a year and if they push hard, possibly as much as $200 billion a year. That comes to more than $600 per person every year.”

Baker added that Biden’s recent appointment of Lina Kahn to be the chair of the Federal Trade Commission “was a really big deal – she is probably the foremost progressive anti-trust scholar in the country.”

Overall, what the Biden administration is doing runs the gamut from very good to very awful. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders – an extraordinary politician who has always worked in tandem with progressive movements – has landed in an exceptional position to shape history. He recently told an interviewer, “As somebody who wrote a book called ‘Outsider in the House,’ yes, it is a strange experience to be having that kind of influence that we have now.”

As Bernie Sanders continues to navigate that “strange experience,” one of the realms where he excels is public communication. It was aptly summarized a few days ago by Nathan J. Robinson, who wrote that Sanders “is always on message, always trying to make sure the press has to talk about what he wants them to talk about…. Bernie has his flaws and made serious mistakes in both of his presidential campaigns, but he is very good at politics despite his marginal position. If he goes on a talk show, he will be discussing wealth inequality or the future of democracy… Staying relentlessly on message – and thinking about what topics we want to spend our finite resources and time talking about – is critical to having an effective, persuasive left.”

An effective, persuasive left cannot be sustained by any leader, no matter how inspiring or brilliant. With the future at stake, what’s ultimately possible – as the Bernie 2020 motto insisted – is not about him, it’s about us.

---

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

READ MORE

 

Contribute to RSN

Follow us on facebook and twitter!

Update My Monthly Donation

PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611

POLITICO NIGHTLY: When you’ll need your third Covid shot

 

BY MYAH WARD Presented by With help from Renuka Rayasam BOOSTER CLUB — Will I need a booster shot? When? Covid cases are rising in almost every state as the Delta variant attacks unvaccinated populations across the U.S. This discouraging trend, combined with Pfizer’s announcement last week that the company planned to seek approval for a Covid booster shot, has unleashed third-dose panic among the vaccinated. The unsatisfying answer to both questions is that scientists don’t know. But the bottom line: You don’t need a booster shot right now, and you probably won’t anytime soon. “There’s no evidence right now that the general population needs a booster dose because we’re not seeing evidence of waning immunity or substantially reduced effectiveness against the Delta variant,” William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in an interview with Nightly. Tons of scientists are keeping an eye on this. Studies are being conducted by academic institutions and the CDC. Pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer and Moderna, are observing their earliest vaccine recipients. A patient is given his Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination by a doctor at Haxby and Wigginton Surgery in York, England. | Ian Forsyth/Getty Images There’s not just one metric that will determine when it’s time to roll out the boosters, Moss said. Researchers are looking at symptomatic breakthrough infections, hospitalizations and deaths in immunized people. The second tier of evidence, Moss said, is antibody levels. Antibody levels are a less important data point because it’s normal for these levels to decrease over time, Moss said. It’s how the immune system works. Lower antibodies don’t necessarily mean a person is more susceptible to the coronavirus or will have severe disease. Nor is there a specific number or benchmark that scientists are waiting for to say it’s go-time, Moss said. It will be a judgment call, one made by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The group is scheduled to meet next week to discuss boosters for the immunocompromised. Variants like Delta do complicate immunity, and it’s possible we’ll need a booster if we see a variant that can evade the vaccine’s protection. But with what experts know about immune systems and other vaccines, Moss said he doesn’t expect vaccinated people to need another shot in 2021 or even 2022. “I think for most people, outside those special populations, the immunocompromised and maybe the elderly — I think most people’s immunity is going to last years, to be honest,” Moss said. Moss said “years” is difficult to define, but if he had to guess, he would say three to four years, and maybe longer, before we need a booster. When it is time to roll out a new round of doses, Moss said he envisions it like the U.S.’s initial vaccine distribution — targeting the most vulnerable groups first like immunocompromised, elderly populations and health care workers. Then we may see a recommendation for the general public. By that time, Moss added, we’ll see more vaccine mix-and-matching, if the evidence supports it. Maybe you got Johnson & Johnson for your first dose but could get the Pfizer booster. Other vaccine options are also expected to be available by then, like Novavax, which plans to file for emergency use authorization by the end of September. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author directly at mward@politico.com or @MyahWard. A message from AstraZeneca: Through COVAX, we are working with partners GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance), WHO (World Health Organization), CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) and SII (Serum Institute of India) to ensure people around the world have access to safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines, wherever they live and regardless of income level. Learn more here.   WHAT'D I MISS? — Biden: Child tax credits will be among administration’s top achievements: Biden said today that the monthly child tax credits that Americans began receiving this week will be among his administration’s proudest accomplishments . “It’s historic and it’s our effort to make another giant step towards ending child poverty in America,” Biden said today. “I think this will be one of the things the vice president and I will be most proud of when our terms are up.” — Facebook blocks highly targeted Iran-linked hacking campaign: Facebook has interrupted a sophisticated and highly targeted hacking campaign by a group that some experts have linked to the Iranian government , the company said today. The hacker group known as “Tortoiseshell” used Facebook and other social networks to trick military personnel and defense and aerospace industry employees into downloading custom malware that spied on victims and stole their data, the company said in a blog post. — Trump denies coup attempt in latest attack on Milley: Former President Donald Trump attacked Gen. Mark Milley again today, this time over new reports that the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to prevent Trump from perpetrating a government takeover reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the aftermath of the 2020 election. In a more than 400-word statement issued from his post-presidential office, Trump denied that he had ever “threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government,” calling the notion “So ridiculous!” — Black Caucus Chair arrested during protest in Capitol complex: Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was among nine protesters arrested this afternoon who were calling on the Senate to pass voting rights legislation. Chanting “end the filibuster” and “let the people vote” the group marched into Hart Senate Office Building in what Beatty said was an effort to “send (senators) a message.” — Democrats launch immigration reform Hail Mary: Top Democrats, with the support of the White House, are planning to tuck a handful of immigration measures into their forthcoming $3.5 trillion spending bill. The tactic — which just months ago seemed like a long shot even to liberals — is now widely seen as Biden’s best shot at delivering on a decades-long party promise.   SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.     AROUND THE WORLD BOOING BOOSTERS — The talk of Covid boosters in the U.S. has infuriated global health leaders, complicating the ethics surrounding a third dose. This week, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus blasted the idea of a third shot when health care workers around the world have yet to receive their first dose. During Nighty’s phone call with JHU’s William Moss to discuss boosters, Myah asked Moss to weigh in on the debate. The U.S. needs to do more to address global vaccine inequities, Moss said. And the fact that a large proportion of Americans have a free vaccine at their fingertips but remain against it only makes this more problematic, he added. “I’m glad he said that,” Moss said. “It makes me think, OK, if people in the United States don’t want the vaccines, we should give the vaccines to those who really want them.”       WILD, WILD WESTERN HEMISPHERE — The Pentagon has made clear it has no appetite for a new military entanglement in Latin America, following dual crises in Haiti and Cuba this week. Yet lawmakers, former officials and experts are calling on Biden to devote more resources to a region they say has been long neglected by the United States. Top military officials at U.S. Southern Command have warned for years that Russia, China and other bad actors are rushing to fill the power vacuum left by Washington’s deprioritization of Central and South America in favor of faraway places such as the Middle East, Lara Seligman writes. Now, the shocking assassination of the Haitian president and historic unrest in Cuba are a stark reminder of how quickly tumult can erupt in America’s own backyard — and the potential security ramifications for the entire region. U.S. officials have thus far declined to fulfill Haitian officials’ requests to send American troops to help calm the situation, although they sent a small number of personnel to shore up the U.S. Embassy there immediately after President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination. And though Biden has voiced support for the protesters in Cuba, most of his administration’s policy toward the country, including potentially lifting Trump-era sanctions, remains a mystery. NIGHTLY NUMBER 82 The age of Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer has not decided when he will retire from the Supreme Court, he told CNN in an interview published today . The two factors that would impact his retirement plans, Breyer said, are “primarily, of course, health,” and “second, the court.”   SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.     PARTING WORDS DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME) — Renuka Rayasam emails from Texas: When the pandemic first hit last March and all of my colleagues scrambled to figure out how to work from home, I confess I experienced a moment of schadenfreude. I have worked remotely for years and already knew all the indignities and frustrations that came with being disconnected from a physical office. Now, as my coworkers prepare to head back to the newsroom this fall for their in-person meetings, stocked supply room and shiny white desks adorned with second monitors, I worry about the rest of us, who were always remote, being left behind. Many employers are pushing for a return to the office because they say it will foster connection and culture. And in many ways it does. But during the past year, with everyone remote, my employer figured out how to accommodate the needs of workers scattered across the country. I could vent or gossip with colleagues over Slack, team meetings were moved to Zoom and coworkers picked up their phones and called me directly to chat. The pandemic made parts of my work life awful in other ways — I was forced to abandon a coworking space I got shortly after the end of my second maternity leave and move to a desk in the corner of our bedroom. But at least, for the first time, I felt actually connected to a lot of people toiling away in HQ whom, before the pandemic, I had never met and who probably had never thought about me. I had officemates. But will I still have them next year? I’m just going to say it bluntly: Before the pandemic, when our colleagues were distracted by snacks and after-work drinks and hallway chatter, those of us far afield were an afterthought to most office workers. One time, during a meeting long before the pandemic, no one in POLITICO’s Rosslyn office could get the conferencing technology to work. So someone in the room called me directly on their cell phone and put me on speakerphone. From my home in Texas I could hear garbled voices and the occasional laugh, and not much else. Now that Zoom is a firmly entrenched part of our meeting culture, I doubt I will have to sit through a meeting I can’t understand anytime soon. But I worry that the people sitting together in conference rooms will slowly forget about us. They’ll chatter away with their neighbors while those of us at home will wish our computer monitors had peripheral vision to see what was happening off camera. Will anyone in my “fun” Slack channels bother to respond when I drop random tidbits, like the time I just needed to tell a private channel how much I was loving the book Pachinko and got tons of other great book recommendations in response? This is not a plea to delay an in-person return to the office or school. And I’m grateful for the benefits of remote work, like not having to commute. But the pandemic leveled the playing field of coworker interactions. I’m worried that my colleagues will gravitate back to their in-person officemates, losing interest in their virtual peers. Now that I know what I am missing, it’s hard to imagine going back to the time before the pandemic, when so often I was left out but didn’t realize it. I already missed the first in-person office party , though I did order Thai food with the UberEats gift card that we still-remote workers got as solace. And before everyone went off to sip drinks on an Adams Morgan rooftop, I lurked in a Slack channel where people discussed what they should wear to the party. For the record, I would have put on a black jumpsuit. A message from AstraZeneca: The COVAX initiative is an unprecedented effort to ensure fair and equitable global COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Through COVAX, many more shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine, including our own product, are planned over the coming weeks and months to low- and middle-income countries as the fight against the virus continues. We have always understood vaccination as a global, no-profit, equity-focused undertaking and were the first pharmaceutical company to join COVAX in June 2020. Through COVAX and other global initiatives, we have supplied more than half a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 170 countries; 300 million of which have gone to low-income regions. Learn more here.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA