VAX LIVE:
The Concert to Reunite the World

Airing and live streaming on Saturday, May 8, 2021 on ABC, ABC News Live, CBS, YouTube, iHeartMedia broadcast radio stations and the iHeartRadio App, VAX LIVE will start at 8 PM ET/PT, 7 PM CT. The concert will also air on FOX at 11 PM ET/PT, AXS TV, and will air internationally on Multishow in Brazil and Caracol in Colombia, SABC in South Africa and MultiChoice across Africa. As the exclusive global streaming partner, YouTube will stream an extended version of VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World on the Global Citizen channel for a full run-time of 90 minutes, which will include additional performances and appearances.

The broadcast will be hosted by Selena Gomez. Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be appearing as Campaign Chairs. The show will also feature performances Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin and H.E.R. and appearances by President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn and Sean Penn.

The YouTube livestream (available on Global Citizen’s YouTube channel as of 8 p.m. ET on May 8) will include additional performances and appearances by NCT 127, Picture This, and YouTube creators Daniel El Travieso, Kati Morton, ShootforLove, Thembe Mahlaba and The Try Guys.

We won’t release the set times of artists performing. You will need to tune in to see the full show to enjoy your favorite artists’ performances.

VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World is a global broadcast special airing on May 8, 2021, that will celebrate hope as families and communities reunite after receiving the vaccine, and call on world leaders to step up for equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The broadcast will be taped before its airing and will comply with the strictest of COVID-19 compliance guidelines. We are working with the LA County Health Department, SoFi Stadium, Live Nation, iCrowd, CrowdRx, CSC Security, CMC Global Event Services, Ticketmaster, and others to ensure that we can host an event that is safe and aligns with state and county guidance.

We are working closely with partners to create a limited capacity audience of fully vaccinated frontline workers who will be required to wear masks. We look forward to sharing these plans as they are ready and as the situation in California evolves.

Please visit our Audience FAQ page for details on attending the show at SoFI Stadium on May 2.

We have an in-depth COVID safety and compliance plan, designed and supervised by iCrowd and Dr. Stuart Weiss, a highly respected expert on COVID and live events, as well as CrowdRX, an event safety group founded and staffed by highly trained MDs, paramedics, EMTs and other medical support personnel. All attendees must be fully vaccinated prior to April 15 and will be masked. We will be verifying vaccination status by checking vaccination cards both ahead of the event and on site. Other measures like temperature checks, on-site rapid testing for the working crews, contact tracing, and limited capacity will be in place. There are also robust cleaning protocols that SoFi Stadium has implemented and will be followed prior to and throughout the event. Handwashing and sanitizing stations will be available throughout the venue. 

We are working closely with partners to create a limited-capacity audience of fully vaccinated frontline workers who will be required to wear masks. We look forward to sharing these plans as they are ready and as the situation in California evolves.

We are requiring people to be vaccinated to be eligible for tickets. We will verify this several ways. We’ll be checking vaccination cards on site as well as providing pre-vaccine card verification ahead of the show. Details on these procedures will be shared directly with ticket-holders.

We're working closely with LA County and the State of California to ensure a safe and enjoyable event for everyone. We’re following all of the latest guidelines with regards to capacity at the venue and testing protocols to ensure the entire crew and audience are as safe as can be. We have statements of support from California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; and Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom:  “The State of California is thankful to Global Citizen for demonstrating what’s possible when we embrace getting vaccinated and encourage others to get immunized as well. Music and the arts have long brought us together to celebrate moments of hope and happiness. This concert is no exception to that. We are excited to showcase the best of California reopening in compliance with the best standards of health and safety."

Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health, LA County Public Health: "The COVID-19 vaccines are proving to be the most powerful tool in our fight to end the pandemic, so far saving the lives of millions of people in Los Angeles County alone. Global Citizen and VAX LIVE are showing us all what is possible when vaccinations are combined with strict safety measures. I am grateful for their commitment to this effort and appreciate the many partners from across the world coming together to raise awareness about the importance of getting vaccinated."

From LA Mayor Eric Garcetti: “Global Citizen is giving voice to a core message to Angelenos, Americans, and citizens of the world: Every time someone gets vaccinated, we move another step closer to ending this pandemic. VAX LIVE will open our eyes to the future we can forge if we all do our part, follow health guidelines, and get our shots as soon as we’re eligible — a return to concerts with our fellow fans, gatherings with loved ones, and the embrace of family and friends.”

We are working closely with partners to create a limited-capacity audience of fully vaccinated frontline workers who will be required to wear masks. We look forward to sharing these plans as they are ready and as the situation in California evolves.

While early data suggests that vaccinated people are unlikely to transmit COVID-19, we are following all of the CDC's recommended precautions, which is that people should still wear masks in public. Additionally, it’s imperative that we keep the crew, who may or may not yet be vaccinated, as safe as possible.

As of April 2021, 100% of the $127.9 million in funding raised during One World: Together At Home has been disbursed in full, helping to provide essential PPE, emergency aid, and more to 140+ regional and local organizations, and the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidary Response Fund. Within 10 months of the Global Goal: Unite for Our Future broadcast, $1.1 billion (more than 70% of the $1.5 billion mobilized in new grants) has been disbursed to help protect the world's vulnerable from COVID-19. This funding is directly supporting the work of the ACT-A, COVAX, and numerous other key organizations in their work to provide and distribute testing, treatments, and vaccines into 2021.  

Our partners include the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and the World Health Organization's Dr. Tedros.

Our Executive Producers are the Ad Council, YouTube Originals, iHeartMedia, and Live Nation.

Our Global Partners include Cisco, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, P&G, and Verizon. Our Campaign Partner is WW.

We are also working with the State of California, LA County Health Department, SoFi Stadium, Live Nation, iCrowd, CrowdRx, CSC Security, CMC Global Event Services, Ticketmaster, and others to ensure that we can host an event that is safe and aligns with state and county guidance.

Our advocacy partners include the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator; the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND); and UNITAID.

Our philanthropic partners include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy.

Yes! The show will be available on demand on YouTube at YouTube.com/GLBLCTZN, as of May 8 at 8 p.m. ET.

We actually need more — but this would provide close to 30% coverage for the highest risk populations in low-income countries. Think: nurses, seniors, people with other medical conditions. Protecting the most vulnerable people everywhere will help relieve overburdened health care systems and end the worst phase of the pandemic. But this is just the start. The WHO estimates that we need at least 60% global coverage to achieve collective immunity.

Vaccine hoarding is a massive injustice when everyone, everywhere needs access to these life-saving tools. But vaccine sharing is also important for world health security. Unless wealthy countries share vaccine doses as soon as possible, we won’t be able to break the chain of virus transmission globally and limit the emergence of dangerous, potentially vaccine-resistant variants that could put everyone at risk all over again. Here's more on why wealthy countries should start donating vaccine doses now. 

We’re working closely with partners at the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), which needs an additional $22.1 billion to deliver 2 billion vaccines, as well as tests and treatments, to the poorest countries by the end of this year. We’re urging governments to contribute their fair share based on multiple factors, including the size of their economies and income per capita.

One of the core obstacles in achieving global vaccine equity is limited vaccine supply, and the control that pharmaceutical companies have over that supply. 

Existing intellectual property (IP) rules mean that certain companies hold exclusive rights to the production and distribution of leading COVID-19 vaccines. Temporarily waiving these patents would allow countries to scale up capacity for manufacturing vaccines, particularly in developing countries. 

As part of the VAX LIVE campaign, Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have called on the CEOs of leading vaccine manufacturers to 1) contribute more doses to COVAX sooner, 2) end their opposition to measures like the temporary suspension of IP, and 3) work collaboratively with the global community to achieve universal vaccine access. 

During VAX LIVE, Pope Francis will be making a special address, including a call for “a spirit of justice that mobilizes us to ensure true universal access to vaccines, and a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights.” 

While the quickest way to get vaccines to people in need is by pressing wealthy governments to share doses and fully fund COVAX, we must also pursue medium-term efforts to enable vaccine producers around the world, including in developing countries, to attempt to produce generic versions of the vaccines, enough for everyone, everywhere, without risk of being sued. 

All research to date indicates that the vaccines for COVID-19 are safe and effective. COVID-19 vaccines were tested and evaluated in large clinical trials, where data showed that the known and potential harm of being infected with COVID-19 outweighs any potential side effects of the vaccines. They have been carefully tested and continue to be monitored. All of the vaccines approved in the US meet the FDA’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency-use authorization, and they went through similar, independant approval processes in the EU and elsewhere. The WHO has also undertaken its own rigorous approval process for vaccines being distributed by COVAX.

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is an important tool in stopping the pandemic and will provide protection both for yourself and for others around you. If you have any more concerns, visit the WHO for more information.

While it’s true that, in the past, it has taken many years for vaccines to be developed, this does not mean that the relatively quick development of COVID-19 vaccines skipped critical safety measures. Below are a number of factors that enabled the COVID-19 vaccines to be produced quicker than others:

• The mRNA technology used to develop the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has been years in development, and so the manufacturing process was ready very early on in the pandemic;
• China shared genetic information about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus once it was available, giving vaccine developers an early start to finding a vaccine;
• Vaccine developers conducted some stages of the testing process simultaneously, in order to gather data as quickly as possible;
• Governments gave money to vaccine developers in advance, so they had all the necessary resources and limited risk;
• Through social media outreach, enough research participants were found to enroll in vaccine trials;
• Given how widespread and contagious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is, many volunteers who enrolled in vaccine trials were later exposed to the virus, resulting in a shorter time frame to see if the vaccines worked;
• Companies began manufacturing vaccine doses ahead of authorization, so supplies were ready as soon as the vaccines were authorized.

The CDC is a helpful resource to check out how the different vaccines were developed, and to learn more about the types of vaccines available. The FDA also has some useful information on the three vaccines that have been approved in the US (Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson), as does the EU’s EMA. Finally, the WHO has a detailed Q&A section where you can likely find all the answers to your questions.

The first two COVID-19 vaccines to be approved, those by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, were created using mRNA, or messenger RNA, a new technology that allows a faster approach than the traditional way vaccines are made. Traditional vaccines have used dead or weakened versions of a virus, which the body learns to recognize and develop immunity to, but making new vaccines this way can take years. That’s where the mRNA approach comes into play by teaching our cells to make a protein that will trigger an immune response within our bodies and, in turn, produce antibodies which will protect us in case of exposure.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines give “instructions” for the body to copy the spike proteins on the surface of the coronavirus (the ones that give the virus its telltale appearance). With these instructions, our immune systems are able to build an immune response and create antibodies which will protect us in the case of infection of COVID-19. The CDC has a helpful guide if you want to learn more about mRNA vaccines.

According to the CDC, any of the currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines can be offered to people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. There is currently limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women, and trials looking at safety concerns among them are still underway. That said, there is data to show that pregnant women are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared to non-pregnant women, and might be at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth. Ultimately, the WHO asserts that this is a discussion to be had with your healthcare provider.

Any of the authorized vaccines is better than no vaccine, and the consensus is that you should get whichever one is offered to you, in line with the official advice of your state/country. 

Please see the latest guidance from public health authorities in the UK and the European Union, plus the interim statement from the World Health Organization.

On April 13, the US FDA and CDC recommended pausing usage of the J&J vaccine after six women experienced blood clots after getting the vaccine. It’s not uncommon for health regulators to pause the use of a drug or vaccine to allow for further study of possible side effects. Ultimately their decision will still balance the benefits of a vaccine against any risks. There have been six reported cases of this clotting condition out of 7 million doses of the vaccine given in the US — 0.00009% of cases. The FDA and CDC call these events “extremely rare,” but are rightly taking every precaution to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.

On April 22, the FDA announced the end of the recommended pause on the J&J vaccine. J&J will add a warning to its label to note the potential risk of rare blood clots.

The US still has over 23 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines being delivered each week, and in total will access at least 400 million doses by the end of Q2, enough alone to fully vaccinate nearly 80% of American adults. And right now, most health workers in low-income countries can’t access a vaccine let alone entire populations.

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