Ten rich countries are responsible for 75 per cent of all doses of coronavirus vaccines administered globally while around 130 countries have had no access to vaccines at all.
Having secured the lion’s share of the world’s vaccine, powerful countries including China, the UAE, and India are beginning to redistribute vaccines to countries where they seek influence. Meanwhile, the West is broadly accused of hoarding vaccines at the expense of developing countries.
To discuss challenges to access and the rise of vaccine diplomacy, Emma Ross and Professor David Heymann are joined by Professor Helen Rees and Professor David Ellwood. How is the effort to ensure global access to vaccines, both through the WHO-backed COVAX facility and beyond it, progressing? Can timely and affordable globally equitable access be achieved without considering a different approach to intellectual property rights? And have COVID-19 vaccines become the newest diplomatic currency?
Professor Ellwood is is Senior Adjunct Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at John Hopkins SAIS Europe. He has been teaching a course on ‘Soft Power and Global Politics’ for 10 years. He has written about vaccine diplomacy and the geopolitics of vaccines.
Professor Rees is internationally renowned for her research and policy work in HIV, vaccines, reproductive health and drug regulation. She is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI).
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