Vaccines remain the best hope for protecting people around the globe from COVID-19 and for taming the pandemic, according to an opinion piece co-authored by two students and an alumnus from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The January 19, 2022 NPR piece was written by Edward Cliff, MPH ’22, Isaac Chan, MPH ’22, and Salmaan Keshavjee, SM ’93, a Harvard Medical School professor. The authors noted that governments, especially those in high-income nations, continue to hoard vaccines. But they added that “we already have the resources, knowledge and systems to make and distribute vaccines around the globe.”
They listed five steps to make it happen: produce billions more vaccines; fund “last mile” delivery to ensure that vaccines make it through the final steps in the supply chain, from shipping containers to medical facilities and into people’s arms; set bold vaccination goals; build more trust in vaccines; and ensure that vaccines benefit people, not just companies.
The authors wrote, “Scientists have played their role in developing powerful vaccines, now global leaders must prioritize the seemingly more challenging task of getting vaccines into the arms of those who need them.”
Read the NPR piece: Opinion: 5 steps we must take to vaccinate the world’s vulnerable—and end the pandemic