In the U.S. state of Maryland, public health activists staged a protest outside the home of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain

Washington, October 1 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Maryland, public health activists staged a protest outside the home of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, calling on the Biden administration to massively ramp up vaccine production and to transfer vaccine technology to the Global South. 

Activists placed a towering pile of fake human bones across from Klain’s home, representing millions of COVID-19 deaths.  The protest was led by James Krellenstein, co-founder of the HIV/AIDS activist group PrEP4All.  He told reporters: "The millions of deaths that have occurred under this presidency’s watch, they are all preventable deaths.  This is no longer a scientific crisis.  This is a political crisis.  And we are bringing these bones to this chief of staff’s house because this is not just a political issue.  This is a personal issue to tens of millions of people, to hundreds of millions, to billions of people around the world whose lives are threatened by this man and by this president’s inaction.”

In the U.S. state of Massachusetts, over a dozen doctors linked to Harvard Medical School held a similar protest outside the Boston home of Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, demanding his company share the recipe for its COVID-19 vaccine with the world.  Bancel’s net worth has soared to over $13 billion during the pandemic.

University of Washington researchers estimate more than 10.5 million people have died of COVID-19 worldwide, with projections that number will exceed 12.3 million by the end of the year.  Only 2% of people in low-income nations have received even a single dose of a COVID vaccine.