Act for Free Vaccines: send a letter and join our Oct 1 flyering action
COVID vaccines were developed with billions of taxpayer dollars. They should be free for all.
Ever since the CDC’s Bridge Access Program ended prematurely in August, COVID vaccines are no longer free for uninsured adults. Now, over 25 million US adults who lack insurance or whose insurance requires a co-pay for vaccines (under-insured) will not have covered access to updated boosters, except in limited states where state-level programs have been added.
COVID vaccines were developed with billions of dollars of taxpayer money. The government must ensure they are now freely accessible to all.
Take action by:
Sending a letter to Biden, Harris and Congress demanding free vaccines and
Join our October 1 flyering day by printing out our flyers and leafleting your community (details below)
We’re calling for a national flyering event on Tuesday October 1 for free vaccines.
Here’s how to participate: Print out our flyer below and distribute it in your community. The QR code directs people to our letter campaign to send letters to Congress, Biden and Harris, urging them to fund COVID vaccines. The flyering campaign also educates the broader community about this important issue.
How to flyer: gather with a small group of (masked!) friends outside your local pharmacy, library university or any place with high foot traffic. If you can, post pictures of you flyering on Tuesday on social media using the hashtag #FreeTheVaccine and we’ll do our best to boost them.
Demand Biden-Harris fund free COVID vaccines for all.
Join us in urging Congress, President Biden, and Vice President Harris to fund free COVID vaccines for underinsured and uninsured adults. The CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which provided free COVID vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults, ended prematurely in August 2024 when Congress cut funding. Now, over 25 million US adults who lack insurance or whose insurance requires a co-pay for vaccines (underinsured) will not have covered access to updated boosters and will be required to pay more than $200. Updated COVID boosters protect us best when everybody takes them. The Federal government must fund free COVID vaccines for all.
Local advocates like you have already sent over 13,000 letters asking Congress to fund COVID vaccines for uninsured adults. To avert serious harm from restricted access to the updated fall COVID vaccines, we need our elected officials to act with urgency to provide this essential public health protection for uninsured and underinsured adults.
Biden campaigned on free COVID vaccines and treatments for all - it's essential we push Harris to do the same. COVID vaccines were researched and developed with billions of tax-payer funds. The Biden-Harris decision to commercialize vaccines in 2022 already made accessing this public good more difficult, while producing record profits for pharmaceutical corporations. Now, those pharmaceutical corporations are demanding that we pay again. What the public paid for should be a public good, to benefit us all.
You can use our Action Network campaign to send a letter to President Biden, Vice President Harris, and your members of Congress, keeping our letter in full or editing it as you wish.
Letters to elected officials are most effective when they start with a brief personal comment (a sentence or two) about why vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults matters to you, your loved ones, and your community.
Letter Template
To: President Biden, Vice President Harris, and members of Congress
I urge you to take action to mandate and fund a program that ensures ongoing free COVID vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults, such as the CDC’s COVID Bridge Access program or the proposed Vaccines for Adults program. The CDC’s Bridge program ended in August 2024 due to a lack of funds, so uninsured and underinsured adults lost this important access to free COVID vaccines. They have lost access just as the latest vaccines have become available in pharmacies, clinics, and local health departments across the country.
Over 25 million adults lack adequate health insurance to cover the cost of the latest COVID vaccines, and fees of over $200 per shot are unaffordable for many. The CDC recommends these updated vaccines for people of all ages. Benefits of COVID vaccination range from reduced sick days to reduced risk of both severe disease and long-term disability due to Long COVID.
No one should have to choose between getting vaccinated and being able to afford their basic needs. Please act with urgency to fund free COVID vaccines for uninsured and underinsured adults.