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5/7 on the India covid surge

Please read our statement below.

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Dear APIGSA community and allies,

 

We, the Asian Pacific Islanders Graduate Student Alliance (APIGSA) executive board, are horrified and devastated by the dramatic increase in cases of COVID-19 happening in India, and are disgusted by the negligence of the Modi government in response, as well as by the United States’s refusal to release vaccine patents in the name of preserving their profitability for pharmaceutical corporations. Many of our community members’ families and friends have been directly impacted, and we extend our deepest sympathies to them. 

 

We provide in our resources tab a series of action items, including not only grassroots organizations fundraising for oxygen concentrators for hospitals and care providers, as well as other necessary supplies, but also a template for contacting federal elected officials and demanding that they pressure the Biden administration to release COVID-19 vaccination patents so as to accelerate vaccine distribution in India and elsewhere outside the US. The hoarding of life-saving vaccines is unconscionable and inhumane, and we strongly urge our community to pressure our elected representatives to immediately reverse the vaccine patent policy.

 

We strongly urge our community members to contact their US Senators and Congresspeople and push them to demand that the Biden administration release the patents to the COVID-19 vaccines to accelerate vaccinations in India and elsewhere. That the United States is hoarding a surplus supply of vaccinations while people in India are dying is amorality at its finest, further proof that the west will extract all resources possible from nations it has designated as the “Third World,” and then leave the people of those nations to die. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this neocolonial act of violence, and demand that our elected representatives do the same. 

 

If you are local to the UCSB campus, your two US Senators are Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, and your US Representative is Salud Carbajal (links lead to the contact information of their local offices). If you are not local to the UCSB campus, this tool can provide you with the contact information for your Senators and US Representative. We recommend this script, although we urge slight variation in emails, as these email accounts can filter out messages that have identical language to other messages, in order to prevent this kind of high volume of contact.

 

Check our resources tab for a list of opportunities for direct donations, with our thanks to PeoplePower4India for assembling a comprehensive list. Giving money can seem futile, but in this moment it is the most tangible mutual aid action that those in the United States can take. 

 

Solidarity to the people of India. Solidarity to the people of all nations who are exploited and subjugated by the United States and the West. 

 

Thank you,

APIGSA Executive Board

Naomi Joseph, President

Janna Haider, Vice President

Donna Anderson, Treasurer

Misa Nguyen, Community Liaison 

Click here to read our statement on anti-Blackness in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade. 

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Community

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Activism

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Fun

"It takes a village," as they say. Our organization, the Pan-Asian community, and other groups at UCSB connect with and support each another.

We are committed to using our voices as graduate students to advocate for the needs of the collective Asian community.

A work-life balance is a must. Our socials have included mingling at breweries, hosting movie nights, and grabbing KBBQ together!

© 2023 by Shuying Yu of APIGSA. Proudly created with Wix.com

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