"There was a new virus ringing alarm bells in China, but it hadn't yet become an international concern. It didn't even have a name. Yet Seth Berkley was already thinking about how to protect the world with vaccines against it. Berkley was the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to expanding access to vaccines around the globe."
"Ultimately, COVAX's success was mixed. Between 2021 and 2023, the entity distributed 2 billion doses, but many low- and middle-income countries lagged far behind wealthier ones. Now, Berkley has written a new book Fair Doses that tells the inside story of the effort and outlines a vision for how the globe might do better next time. NPR spoke with the author, an epidemiologist who stepped down as CEO of Gavi in 2023 and is now a global health consultant."
An initiative called COVAX originated at the Hard Rock Hotel in Davos on January 23, 2020 to pre-purchase bulk vaccine doses from manufacturers and allocate them equitably by population rather than ability to pay. The plan aimed to secure vaccines before efficacy was known and distribute them to all countries. Between 2021 and 2023 COVAX distributed about 2 billion doses, yet many low- and middle-income countries lagged behind wealthier nations. The effort had mixed results, and global preparedness for future pandemics may be weaker in some ways than it was in January 2020.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]