COVID-19 is still the single biggest threat to the lives, livelihoods, health, opportunities & economies of people around the world.

@jennifer & I are donating $25M to @UNICEF/ @UNICEFUSA to accelerate their global vaccination programs: https://www.unicefusa.org/end-the-pandemic

Here’s why ():

First, of course, is simply: human lives & human suffering are just as important in every country. We’re not through this and, for most of the world, it is likely to get worse. We may be on the verge of a more catastrophic humanitarian crisis than anything so far.

Second, we’re all connected: if we in rich countries allow it to take years to vaccinate the rest of the world, it’s not going to end for us either. Thankfully, the vaccines have mostly proven robust against the current variants so far. But evolution is wily, fast and powerful.

Billions of new infections will inevitably create scores of new variants which will circulate, mutate & recirculate around the globe. New vaccine-resistant variants could put us back at square one. This is a global challenge, not a local one. We’re all in this together.

Why @UNICEF? It is the COVAX partner responsible for getting shots in arms worldwide. WHO, Gavi & CEPI are, thankfully, covering the essential projects of vaccine approval, manufacture & funding. They handle vaccines; UNICEF handles *vaccinations*.

Watch:

UNICEF is uniquely well-positioned to pull this off: they already operate the biggest vaccine procurement, storage, shipping & cold chain distribution network in the world, supplying 2B+ doses of vaccine annually across ~100 countries & vaccinating 45% of the world’s children.

The complexity is extreme: global procurement; pre-positioning solar refrigerators, syringes & PPE; secure vaccine transport & delivery; safe equipment disposal. There are no shortcuts. $562M more is needed. Getting $ faster means everything moves faster and every minute counts.

Anything we can do to ensure a fast & equitable distribution of vaccines and accelerate turning them into vaccinations should be a worldwide priority. Every bit of help is welcome and will make a difference. Everyone can pitch in to #EndThePandemic https://www.unicefusa.org/end-the-pandemic

But also …
A CHALLENGE TO OTHER LEADERS IN TECH

It should be easy to raise $100M from software/internet/tech. Many of us had banner years. No one was profiteering, but a strange side effect of a terrible global pandemic happened to be faster growth in our businesses.

Think of this as a big karmic opportunity. Want to pay it forward? Here’s a place we can help.

We could collectively have their whole $562M funded next week, but let’s aim for $100M … *this* week.

Will RT/link to contributions (or tweet them without attribution if you prefer).