A Race Between Vaccines, Variants, and the Virus

Pandemic Planet

In this episode, Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance, joins us to discuss the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. She shares her views on the potential for scaling up vaccine manufacturing in the region, her concerns that more transmissible viral variants may gain a foothold before enough vaccines are available, and her hope that global solidarity around the HIV epidemic in the early 2000s means that it is possible to galvanize collective action in the face of pandemic crises. Why is equitable distribution of tools like vaccines essential? What is the relationship between vaccine equity and vaccine confidence? What can be done to build trust and strengthen vaccine confidence, particularly in areas where there are political or social tensions?