SIGN Mumia HepC Petition to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf

We initiated a campaign in 2015 to get Mumia Abu-Jamal and 10,000 other prisoners in Pennsylvania access to the hep C virus cure they urgently need. We took the PA Department of Corrections to court last December where we were able to show that the DOC spent over $160,000 treating Abu-Jamal’s hep C symptoms, but is refusing to provide him with a life-affirming hep C protocol that provides a 95 percent effective cure. Denying the cure not only increases a patient’s suffering, but leads to higher financial expenses as the disease develops into cirrhosis, cancer of the liver and ultimately death.

The latest phase of our campaign is a petition to PA Gov. Tom Wolf asking him “to make the DOC’s hep C protocol a guide to treatment and eradication of HCV, not a manual for the denial of care.” The petition points out that “the PA DOC’s refusal to fully treat Abu-Jamal and other prisoners is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.”

Please sign the petition online as soon as possible and no later than April 15. Please forward and share this email immediately to all your friends, co-workers and fellow activists who are concerned about health care and justice for all. We plan to print out and deliver all the petitions to Gov. Wolf on Friday, April 22, in Philadelphia — two days before Mumia’s 62nd birthday.

Thank you,

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC

Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

International Action Center

The MOVE Organization

Educators for Mumia

DOWNLOAD PDF of hard copy petition (print and get signatures):

www.iacenter.org/mumiahepcwolfpetition.pdf

Text of petition::

To Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf

We call on you to make the cure for hepatitis-C possible for thousands of Pennsylvanians infected with this virus, including up to 10,000 in PA prisons and 45,000 in Philadelphia. There is a cure that is 95 percent effective but Gilead Sciences charges up to $94,500 for the 12-week long treatment with Sovaldi or Harvoni. Thousands are being denied the hep C cure by Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, personal medical insurers and the PA Department of Corrections. In 2015, while many people were suffering and dying from cirrhosis or cancer of the liver because they didn’t have the means to pay the steep price for the cure, Gilead made an obscene $17 billion in profits.

As we informed you in petitions last year, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal almost died from hepatitis C complication. The DOC spent over $160,000 treating Abu-Jamal’s hep C symptoms but refuses to provide him with the available cure. The cost of the DOC’s refusal to cure the disease when first detected is not only immeasurable in suffering and loss of lives of state prisoners but leads to higher financial expenses as the disease is allowed to develop into cirrhosis or cancer of the liver. We ask you to make the DOC’s hep C protocol a guide for treatment and eradication of HCV, not a manual for the denial of care. Prisoners with untreated hep C unknowingly bring this deadly disease back to their communities – often to neighborhoods with poor access to quality healthcare.

HCV is a greater threat to PA residents than HIV, Ebola or Zika. Countries such as Egypt and India are providing the hep C cure to their patients for a tiny fraction of the cost in this country. Why not Pennsylvania? Gov. Wolf, it is your job to see to it that everyone with the hep C virus should get the cure – those in prison too.

For prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, untreated hepatitis C is a death sentence. The PA DOC’s refusal to fully treat Abu-Jamal and other prisoners is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eight Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. In light of the PA DOC’s refusal to provide the cure to HCV, we therefore call on you to release Mumia Abu-Jamal and all other prisoners needlessly suffering from untreated hepatitis C.

[your signature will appear here]

Please sign by submitting form online HERE by Friday, April 15. The signed petitions will be delivered to Governor Wolf on Friday, April 22.

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
NYC Campaign to Bring Mumia Home
International Action Center
The MOVE Organization