Why Global COVID Vaccinations Are Dangerously Lagging: Six Things to Know
Original article from The Brink , 2021
As Delta variant spreads rapidly, BU-led panel explains why vaccination rollout isn’t keeping pace
As the United States flounders to meet its coronavirus vaccine targets—only 49 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated to date—the especially contagious Delta variant has the daily number of new cases back on the upswing, with a 171 percent increase in new cases compared to two weeks ago. Around the world, the situation is even more dire. Despite the fact that experts predict nearly 11 billion doses of vaccine will have been manufactured by the end of 2021, vaccines are not accessible by the vast majority of people who live outside the world’s highest-income countries.
On Wednesday, Boston University’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy & Research (CEID) convened a panel of experts to provide a briefing on the pitfalls that have so far prevented coronavirus vaccines from reaching the world’s most vulnerable populations, and what challenges lie ahead in pursuit of the goal for 40 percent of the world population to receive a COVID vaccine by the end of 2021. That goal, and a longer-range one of having 60 percent of the world vaccinated by mid-2022, was proposed earlier this year at the G20 Global Health Summit by Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
US Congresswoman Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), kicked off the panel with opening remarks, saying, “the pandemic has taught us how truly connected we are on this planet.” Given that the coronavirus has shown no regard whatsoever for state or national borders, and due to the influence that globalization has had on spreading COVID-19 across all seven continents, Frankel (CAS’70) said “we have a lot of work to do in preventing and responding to [future] pandemics” like this one.
In the briefing—moderated by Amy Maxmen, senior reporter for Nature—global health experts Nahid Bhadelia, founding director of BU’s CEID, Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Mosoka Fallah, president and CEO of Refuge Place International, discussed ways that US policymakers can help ensure people around the world have equitable access to coronavirus vaccine—a strategy that will also protect the health of Americans. With Delta driving coronavirus cases toward another US-wide spike, and many Americans still hesitating to get vaccinated, Maxmen said, “it’s like watching a slow-moving train wreck, despite having developed the scientific tools to stop it.”