Unless policies change, billions of people around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries will not get access to a COVID-19 vaccine until 2024. This is a threat to people around the world, to the US, and to the entire global economy. We can address this problem by ensuring that intellectual property restrictions do not interfere with vaccine access. President Biden himself committed to share vaccine technology with other countries when asked this past summer by activist Ady Barkan. One critical way to remove barriers to vaccine access is to reverse the Trump administration’s deadly opposition to the WTO TRIPS Waiver proposal. U.S. opposition to this waiver, a hallmark of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 failure, is a huge roadblock to efforts to produce and manufacture accessible and affordable vaccines for all. The waiver would allow for the production of generic versions of vaccines and treatments necessary to end the COVID-19 pandemic and save lives worldwide. The people of the U.S. stand with South Africa, India, and over 100 other countries: we want President Biden to stop opposing this proposal to temporarily waive World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that protect pharmaceutical corporation profits over human health.

This is extremely important because we do not want to send out the wrong message to members on our campus or elsewhere, nor do we want to give a platform to someone who has explicitly expressed views contrary to our call to respect the dignity and life of all people. While she may have a unique testimony to becoming an anti-abortion activist, Abby Johnson, in recent videos and Twitter posts, has expressed beliefs and values that do not embody the Church's or Catholic University's consistent life ethic, including egregiously racist remarks and arguments.

Governor Cooper just held a press conference asking schools to begin offering in-person education. However, coronavirus numbers are still revising, with dangerous, more transmittable variants spreading, and the state isn't offering any protection to keep teachers safe. Teachers need to be protected before requiring them to return to in-person instruction. The variant strains identified in North Carolina make the virus much more infectious and allow transmission with much less viral load. Statistics have also recently shown that children make up 1/5 of the cases in North Carolina and have been key in virus transmission. Everyone is talking about the kid's safety while ignoring that school buildings are full of adults too- many of them high-risk. This response by Governor Cooper is not based on science and what is best for our teachers and students- it is based on pressure to return to in-person school regardless of the consequences. If teachers are being required to return to in-person instruction, they should at least have the option for protection of the available vaccine. Vaccinate teachers now.

My name is Lois and I live in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Before the pandemic I worked at an Inn as a dishwasher -- but then, like millions across the country, I was laid off. Each month without work is an impossible decision between paying my water and sewer bill or making repairs on the house so it’s not condemned. It feels like I’m never going to get out of my terrible financial situation. I need to be able to take care of my family. I'd like to get back to work at a safe, good paying job and ideally it would be doing something that helps the country. I want to help us build back better with clean energy -- with the right training, I would be a great administrator or an instructor that we need to make it happen. Clean energy workers are builders, roofers, engineers, electricians, accountants, administrators, researchers and teachers who are all working to deliver renewable energy, like wind or solar power, to create a cleaner, safer, more just country, and I’d love to join them. Congress should see these crises as an opportunity. They have the power to get us back to work NOW, after delivering relief checks, while also tackling the climate crisis and environmental injustice. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can lead the way. We can solve these problems all at once. Climate Action = Jobs, and right now we NEED good paying jobs that get folks like me back to work ASAP. President Biden’s plan to build back better with clean energy means creating millions of good-paying, clean energy union jobs that provide relief. And it means protecting our air and water for communities suffering from decades of environmental racism, who are consequently disproportionately suffering from COVID. At the same time, we’d tackle the biggest existential crisis of our time -- climate change. Millions of people like me want to get back to work. We want to be part of the fastest growing industry in America, which we need to grow even faster. At 50, I’m an older worker, and it’s harder for me to find work. The hospitality industry that I was in before the pandemic has been affected badly and probably won’t recover for a while. I’ve been trying to cobble together unemployment insurance, and the $600 stimulus check was helpful, but it’s gone, and without work I can’t pay my bills. With the right investments in our economy, all of us can thrive. Congress needs to deliver for the American people as quickly as possible. We can build a clean energy future and create good paying jobs, with an emphasis on the low-income communities and communities of color who are bearing the brunt of COVID and the climate crisis. Congress -- we have no time to wait. ADD YOUR NAME: Demand Congress take immediate action to create clean energy jobs and get Americans back to work NOW. Lois P. Pittsfield, Massachusetts

During the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 Frontliners’ Healthcare, Fire/ Emergency Services & Police have been directly engaged in the defense of our nation during a historical time of arduous and dangerous situations while trying to protect our nations citizens, and infrastructure firm the fall out and possible collapse of the American and global economy. The brave women and men of this great nation who have and are serving in any of the aforementioned positions deserve the gratitude of the US government and its people just as the US Military receives during combat actions in our nations defense. As we see it, there are currently no differences between the current combat actions abroad and now here at home. The only difference currently is the common enemy. America is facing the global enemy of COVID-19 currently on our home soils. Many have lost their lives and lives of family members and friends in the line of duty against the war on “COVID-19!” While the rest of the economy is getting stimulus payments, moratoriums, and bailouts, healthcare workers, firefighters, emergency services and police departments alike have been hard at work, with little to no relief, in hazardous duty zones, risking our lives to save America and its people with little to no expectations from the American people except a simple “thank you!” We believe it’s time for the US government to step up and do the right thing in support of its frontline providers services to this great nation we call UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! United we have stood, and many have fallen and will continue to fall. Please, be kind, be compassionate like we are, and do the right thing. Provide us COVID-19 Frontliners’ Healthcare, Emergency Services & Police, Tax Exclusion Hazardous Duty Service! Thank you and Be safe America!

Marijuana accounts for 53% of all drug arrests in Tennessee, 33% of which are for simple possession. Approximately 20,000 residents of Tennessee are arrested for marijuana possession each year. With the requirement for arrest being 1 ounce of marijuana worth potentially $580 dollars at street value, equating to $11,327,400 minimum worth of potential sales in a legal setting, based on arrests alone. With Tennessee's tax rate of 9.25%, this equates to $1,047,784.50 in potential tax revenue per year at a minimum. (Drugscience) Legalization has already been shown by Forbes.com to be a massive boost in tax revenue for states that have taken the first steps. After Legalization, Tennessee can expect figures similar to the state of Washington where marijuana sales generated $395.5 million in tax revenue in 2019, or Colorado where tax revenue from marijuana exceeded and nearly doubled the $42,000,000 collected from alcohol taxes in the last fiscal year with an astonishing $70,000,000 in tax revenue. Colorado witnessed a $2,000,000 boost in tax revenue from a 10% flat tax on all marijuana products added to the original sales tax of 2.9% in just the first month of 2014 from marijuana sale. Regardless of special taxes in areas of Colorado, sales stayed consistent and healthy, with a total of $14,200,000 worth of marijuana sold. The legalization also came with a bylaw that dedicated the first $40,000,000, which was met in the first fiscal year, of tax revenue directly to school construction. (Forbes) Alcohol, a legal drug, caused 88,000 deaths from 2006-2010, according to the CDC. Marijuana has never been reported to cause death in the history of mankind. One would sooner die of smoke inhalation than of an overdose of THC. Legalization poses no threat to public health or society. In Tennessee, marijuana prohibition has created a racial disparity of arrests in an otherwise fairly equal society of marijuana users. Marijuana users of African descent are 4 times more likely to be arrested than their Caucasian counterparts, even though Caucasians are 5% more likely to partake in recreational marijuana, according to a study done by the American Civil Liberties Union. (ACLU) The State of Tennessee would see more Tax Revenue from legalization then they do from Court Fees collected from simple possession cases, all while saving money from prosecution of said cases. The American Chemical Society has shown that Marijuana is an effective treatment for Alzheimer's. Rather than further bogging down our healthcare system with prescription man made pain killers, or opioids, which has a high level of addiction, legalizing it for medical purposes will allow those with medical disorders to be treated by their choice of medication, which falls under President Trump’s “Right To Try” policy. It is also nature's oldest nausea medication for cancer patients, as well as a stimulant for those who suffer from narcolepsy.(ACS) Tennessee is one of a few states that is behind in the times. Former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions once said, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” Well sorry t Studies show that motor skills can not be impaired by marijuana more than the legal limit of 0.05% Blood Alcohol Concentration. Driving while under the influence of THC, while not recommended, is still safer than alcohol, according to a 2001 study. (NORML) o spoil Former AG Sessions mind frame, but good politicians who are not doctors or have no background in science don’t stand in the way of medical treatment that is a choice by the individual which is protected under Freedom of Choice within The Constitution of not only The United States but also The Tennessee State Constitution.

We need to support the service industry. Anyone currently working with the public should qualify for a vaccine--I love teachers, and we need to support them, too, but if you aren't teaching in person, I'm sorry, you need to wait. These are the people who have been yelled at and spit on regarding mask requirements, yelled at and threatened regarding various shortages that have occurred, and deal with, BY FAR the largest number of strangers on a day-to-day basis. They can't get a living wage, yet... Can they at least be treated like the essential workers they are and get the vaccine ASAP? For efficiency, sending notices to businesses to post in break rooms regarding when employees will be eligible, where and how to sign up for appointments, etc., would help to get the word out to more people faster, rather than hoping everyone gets contacted in a timely manner individually.

We need to get our lives back. We need a plan and a means to execute that plan that will ensure that as many people that want to get the vaccine can as soon as possible. Governor Ron DeSantis needs to accept federal assistance to help Florida get vaccinated.

President Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package featuring an expansion of emergency paid leave, providing economic security to nearly 200 million working people, as well as our nation’s long-term recovery from COVID-19. This bill closes the loopholes in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, it provides over 14 weeks of paid sick, family, and medical leave. It also provides a maximum paid leave benefit of $1,400 per week for eligible working people, and extends emergency paid leave measures until September 20, 2021. This couldn’t come at a more urgent time, as Congress allowed the previous paid leave provisions to lapse in December, right as we hit new, devastating peaks in the coronavirus crisis. President Biden’s plan to reinstate and improve emergency paid leave is a critical step to supporting working families while reducing the spread of the virus. Congress must pass President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, NOW!

Healthcare workers have been on the frontline of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We have worked extra hours, taken assignments across the country to care for everyone during these unpredictable times. Many of us have worked so much that our tax rate will be higher. We were asked by the Government to step up and we have. Now we are asking for FEDERAL TAX exemption in return that will span from 2020-2022.

With the advancement of patents and and increased desire for both non profit and for profit companies to create changes to the weather for desires in wanting more tourism, more water for both need and recreation such as golfing and water sports including fishing and boating events. To be advanced in our modern technology we need to look at the future of this incredible state not just for now but generations of our families here in the future. Also providing guests who visit a sense of additional health concerns from our great state.

In Jamira’s own words (12/10/2020): Governor Ned Lamont, Hello, How are you? My name is Jamira Myers #278506 Inmate Number, and I am currently an inmate at York Correctional Institution. My reason for reaching out to you is because I really need your help. I’ve written to counselors, captains, social workers, the warden, the commissioner, Action 8 News, ACLU, American Disabilities Act. I’ve tried speaking with different attorneys, reporters, and now I’m writing to you because all those people I named I either never got any response or was threatened with a disability ticket if I kept writing them. I’m a 37-year-old black female with 4 children, single mother who has a lot of health problems. I have high blood pressure, chronic asthma, sleep apnea, legally disabled at home due to my chronic back problems and my mental health issues. I’ve had my attorney put in for a (sentence) modification on my behalf which was denied. I filed a Habeas petition to attack the conditions of my confinement, no luck. After a full year I just got a wheelchair and put in a handicapped room so I can be transported back and forth to Medline so I can get my medication because for a while I was off my meds due to me being immobile and the doctor made it seem like I was just refusing when that wasn’t the case - I literally had to push a big trash bin around the compound filled with trash to get around and when I couldn’t do that anymore they would call codes on me and 7 or 8 CO’s had to pick me up off the ground because my legs and my back kept giving out on me. I got laughed at and called Black Bitch and Trash Pusher by CO’s. Please can you help me? I would never have written to you if I didn’t really need your help. 50% of my time will be January, and I will be eligible for a Halfway House two months after that. I’m not asking to be let out in the street but at least put in a hospital or a rehabilitation center so I can get my surgery. I don’t want to die from being obese because I’m immobile due to my back issue. I can’t go to a halfway house like this. I know you receive tons of letters from inmates asking for freedom. I’m willing to be in a locked facility in my hometown so staff can at least get me back and forth to the doctors so I can get some type of pain management and get my surgery scheduled, then go to a halfway house as soon as they have a bed for me. I’m begging you from the bottom of my heart, I don’t want to die here. I’m only 37-years-old, and my kids need their mom. Please can you respond to my letter even if you refuse to help me as well? I’m so desperate and it took me a lot of courage to write you, but I decided to give it a shot and see if there really is a God out there because I’m literally suffering. You got to see it to believe it. Anyways, I’ll end the letter in good faith and hope I receive a response back. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my letter. God bless you and have a wonderful day. Sincerely, Jamira Myers