This Us & Them episode offers an update on global COVID vaccination efforts. Nearly 67 percent of U.S. citizens are fully vaccinated. Now, the effort shifts to providing vaccine to the world — even in places where logistics are complex. There are still more than a dozen countries with COVID vaccination rates at less than 10 percent. Now that vaccine supply is more plentiful, some look to the future and ways that we can learn from this experience.
Charges of vaccine hoarding and global protectionism are coloring the debate over our response to new strains of COVID with vaccinations. The World Health Organization reports so far, only 16 percent of people in low-income countries have gotten a single vaccine dose. That compares with 80 percent in some high-income countries.
The role vaccinations can play in shortening or ending the pandemic is still critical, although COVID fatigue may prevent people from getting their first dose or continuing on to complete the regimen. ‘America first’ has been central to the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign.
Now that focus has shifted and there’s more U.S. effort going into producing vaccines for the world. As international organizations work to get shots in arms, the effort continues to face challenges that may well affect our political and medical realities for years to come.
World Health Organization
Dr. Ann Lindstrand is a pediatrician and coordinator with the World Health Organization (WHO) Expanded Programme on Immunization Team in the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. Prior to joining WHO, Ann was the Programme Manager for the National Immunization Programme in Sweden, and NITAG Chair at the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Throughout her career, Ann has also gained significant in-country experience in pediatric care and vaccination programmes in countries such as Angola, French Guyana, Mozambique, and India.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and the CRC Foundation.
This program was made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 through the West Virginia Humanities Council. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Dr. William A. Haseltine
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Dr. William Haseltine has educated a generation of doctors at Harvard Medical School, designed the strategy to develop the first treatment for HIV/AIDS, is well known for his groundbreaking work on cancer, and led the team that pioneered the development of new drugs based on information from the human genome. TIME magazine named him one of the “25 Most Influential Global Business Executives.” Today, as the Chair and President of ACCESS Health International and an internationally recognized expert on the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Haseltine is dedicated to ensuring that quantum advancements in medical technology translate to improved health outcomes around the world.
Trey Kay
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Patrick Hancock, owner of the Heroes Pub in Goose Creek, SC.
United Nations Journalism Fellowship
Amitoj Singh, is an on-the-move international multimedia journalist driven to be a first responder providing information from the trenches. Currently, he is the India Regulatory Reporter for CoinDesk. He has contributed to CNN, Business Insider, SBS Australia, Al Jazeera, Columbia Global Reports, and India’s New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV).
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Amitoj Singh hugging his grandmother in Gurgaon, Northern India.
Columbia University
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Mailman School Of Public Health
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr is the director of Columbia World Projects and director of the Mailman School’s Global Health Initiative. She is an international expert in infectious diseases and public health with extensive experience in epidemiology and research on the prevention and management of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and emerging infections, among others.
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Misbil Hagi-Salaad is Somali-American and lives part time in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a nurse practitioner, who works two jobs: one at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and the other at Sibley Memorial Hospital, which is part of Johns Hopkins in Washington, DC. This photo was taken in the Dubai Mall in 2019.
