We’ve been training an international group of volunteers for the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign. Our goal is ensuring publicly-funded diagnostic tools, treatment, and the COVID-19 vaccine will be sustainably priced, available to all and free at the point-of-delivery. The participants have been learning how to use artistic activism to reach these goals.
We learned that Dolly Parton had made a one million dollar donation for COVID-19 research to Vanderbilt University in her home state of Tennessee. Additionally, Vanderbilt has received over $10,000,000 in tax-payer supported research initiatives for COVID according to public records.
For publicly funded research to do the most good, it needs to be publicly available.
For publicly funded research to do the most good, it needs to be publicly available. That’s why we’re asking Vanderbilt University (and you*) to sign the Open COVID Pledge. Our Free the Vaccine teams came up with this Jolene Vaccine Lip-Sync Challenge campaign to use humor, participation, and music to get the attention of Vanderbilt and Dolly Parton fans around the world.
If you think that the any testing, treatment or vaccine that has been developed with public funding MUST be affordable and accessible to everyone, help get the word out.
Here’s what you can do:
- Share this video. You can repost our posts on twitter, instagram, and facebook., or make your own!
- *You can sign on to show your support. Your signature helps tell universities and other institutions to make their COVID-19 work accessible to all. If you’re an alumni, faculty or student of any university, indicate their name, and it will help us to encourage them to do the right thing.
- Contribute your own lip sync video clip! Cmon, you know you want to.
Special thanks to the Free the Vaccine Band
- Harry Bohay Nowell on pedal steel
- Yuval Lion on Drums
- Vox: Dally Proton
- all other instr. played by Square Dill and the Rectangle Roundup Gang
- Check out The Free the Vaccine Band on Bandcamp. Buy the track and support the band (and Black Lives Matter!)
And special thanks to the Vox Fabuli Puppets and Cookie Coutoure!