31Jan 2022 by Melissa Slogan
Testing: A Neglected, Critical Component of the COVID-19 Response

Testing: A Neglected, Critical Component of the COVID-19 Response

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. January 31, 2022 By Valerie J. Parker and Beth Boyer   Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, accurate and timely testing has been critical for diagnosis, disease surveillance, and containment strategies. Diagnostic capacity, however, has been a challenge for countries at all income levels, and has been further stressed by surges driven by new variants. Now, with promising oral therapeutics entering the market, diagnostics are even more crucial as they are integral to the roll-out and effective use of the new antivirals. Not all tests are created equal There are two different types of diagnostic tests that are most commonly used, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. PCR tests are the gold standard in testing. They have higher sensitivity and can often detect infection prior…
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28Jan 2022 by Melissa Slogan
The US Has Donated 400 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Globally, As 10 Billion Doses Are Administered Worldwide – Doing More But Not Enough

The US Has Donated 400 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Globally, As 10 Billion Doses Are Administered Worldwide – Doing More But Not Enough

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. January 28, 2022 By Stephanie Stan On January 26, 2022, the White House announced that the United States has shipped over 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. This milestone has established America as the global leader in COVID vaccine donations, shipping more donated doses than any other country. This achievement comes as the world hits its own milestone: administering 10 billion doses globally as of January 28, 2022. But as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic response, doing more is not the same as doing enough.  While the US is out front in its commitments and actions, no country, and no multilateral organization, is doing enough to end the pandemic. Global vaccine inequity, exacerbated by a lack of timely actual donations rather than pledges, places strains on the limited supply of COVID vaccines in low-…
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14Jan 2022 by Melissa Slogan
2021 COVID-19 Vaccines Wrap Up: The Good, the Bad, and Omicron

2021 COVID-19 Vaccines Wrap Up: The Good, the Bad, and Omicron

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. January 14, 2022 By Beth Boyer and Andrea Taylor Another year of the pandemic has come and gone. 2021 kicked off with a glimmer of hope as the first few COVID-19 vaccines reached the market. However, the tremendous undertaking of vaccinating the world got off to a rocky start and much of the world remained unvaccinated throughout the year. More than 9 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered worldwide, with 50% of the world’s population considered fully vaccinated by the end of 2021. But global vaccination coverage was uneven and inequitable. As the virus circulated through largely unvaccinated areas, new and more dangerous variants emerged. These variants, including delta and omicron, led to surges in cases. At the end of 2021, the…
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11Jan 2022 by Melissa Slogan
A Qualitative Analysis of the Introduction & Uptake Pathways, Enablers, & Barriers of Health Interventions In India & Ethiopia

A Qualitative Analysis of the Introduction & Uptake Pathways, Enablers, & Barriers of Health Interventions In India & Ethiopia

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. January 11, 2022 Every day, women and children around the world die from conditions and diseases for which proven and effective health interventions exist, but are inaccessible or reach them too slowly. Lifesaving interventions addressing the MNCH continuum are imperative at all levels of the health system. Barriers in the pathways to the introduction and scaling of these interventions are part and parcel to the failure to get them to the end-user. Conversely, mechanisms that support the uptake of interventions should be encouraged and explored further to foster their use and speed their delivery to the end user. The latest research by the Launch and Scale Speedometer team, A Qualitative Analysis of the Introduction and Uptake Pathways, Enablers, and Barriers of Health Interventions in India and…
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17Dec 2021 by Melissa Slogan

COVID Vaccine Research Update

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. December 17, 2021 By Blen Biru Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with a population of 118 million.  The first COVID-19 case in Ethiopia was identified on March 13, 2020  but, like many African countries, Ethiopia had relatively low reported cases and deaths during the first wave of infections compared with other parts of the world. However, in December 2020, a larger second wave brought increased level of infections and deaths, due to a combination of factors including lower adherence to stringent public health measures. Since August 2021, Ethiopia has been experiencing a third wave of infections, recording close to 300 deaths weekly and a test positive rate of 10-20% although cases have declined in November and December. The high positivity rate suggests that the likelihood of many more infections happening beyond…
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13Dec 2021 by Melissa Slogan
COVID-19 pills are coming. Urgent action is needed to ensure equitable global access.

COVID-19 pills are coming. Urgent action is needed to ensure equitable global access.

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. December 13, 2021 By Beth Boyer, Ethan Chupp, and Andrea Taylor For much of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines have been the primary focus to slow the spread of the virus. However, amid rising infection rates and low global vaccination coverage, effective therapeutics that can prevent severe disease could be a game changer. But only if we learn from the inequitable vaccine rollout and ensure global access from the beginning. Several treatments have been approved but are primarily used in high-income countries. Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy has proven effective at preventing high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate disease from developing severe disease and being hospitalized. But mAb therapy is expensive, and is administered via infusion or injection which requires medical infrastructure, trained staff, equipment (that can add…
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03Dec 2021 by Melissa Slogan
Lack of Supply or Demand? What we can learn from South Africa’s experience

Lack of Supply or Demand? What we can learn from South Africa’s experience

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. December 3, 2021 By Beth Boyer and Andrea Taylor South Africa and a handful of other African nations recently asked vaccine makers to hold off on shipping more COVID-19 vaccines for the time being. Leaders of wealthy countries, accused of hoarding vaccine doses, are using this to make the case that vaccine hesitancy rather than supply is to blame for low vaccination coverage across sub-Saharan Africa. This comes amid the emergence of the Omicron variant, first identified by South Africa’s genome sequencing experts, which has reignited calls to urgently address the inequitable distribution of vaccines. The demand-not-supply framing overlooks the more complicated reality of vaccination campaigns for countries across Africa. In fact, hesitancy is only part of the problem. According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the…
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26Nov 2021 by Melissa Slogan
New Analysis Finds That G7+EU Excess Doses Can Cover 40% Supply Gap In 2021

New Analysis Finds That G7+EU Excess Doses Can Cover 40% Supply Gap In 2021

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. November 26, 2021 By Andrea Taylor We are excited to announce the release of new analysis and recommendations through our initiative, the COVID Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP), a collaboration between Duke University and the Covid Collaborative. There are a plethora of dashboards and datasets on COVID-19 response, including vaccine supply and vaccination coverage, providing detail on what is happening both globally and at the country level. However, the existence of these dashboards is not resulting in actions that meet the pressing needs. The COVID GAP pulls together key data across multiple sources to highlight the need and provide evidence-based recommendations to catalyze effective actions and share promising strategies. Our latest report focuses on the 40% and 70% vaccination coverage targets, which have been widely endorsed by global leaders…
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18Nov 2021 by Melissa Slogan
Scaling Lifesaving Interventions Faster: A Case Study on the Accelerated Uptake of NOPV2, the First Vaccine to Receive WHO Emergency Use Listing

Scaling Lifesaving Interventions Faster: A Case Study on the Accelerated Uptake of NOPV2, the First Vaccine to Receive WHO Emergency Use Listing

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. November 18, 2021 By Stephanie Stan [caption id="attachment_2946" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Source: WHO[/caption] Scaling Lifesaving Interventions Faster: A case study on the accelerated uptake of nOPV2, the first vaccine to receive WHO Emergency Use Listing  Widespread administration of oral polio vaccines (OPVs) has resulted in reduced incidence of polio and the eradication of wild poliovirus type 2 and type 31,2. Despite progress reducing the burden of polio globally, type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) has continued to spread, primarily through Africa and Asia1,3: in 2019, there were 366 cases of cVDPV2 globally and by 2020, this number had increased to 1,069 cases1,4,5. The novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2)—a more genetically stable, next generation polio vaccine—was developed to prevent further spread and outbreaks of cVDPV2 throughout under-immunized populations, serving to save children from poliovirus-induced paralysis and death1. In…
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29Oct 2021 by Melissa Slogan
Booster Shots Ahead of the Holidays

Booster Shots Ahead of the Holidays

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. October 29, 2021 By Blen Biru Confirmed Vaccine Purchases Confirmed Donations (by recipient, includes pledges) High income countries 7 B 7 M Upper  middle income countries 2.6 B 75 M Lower middle income countries 2.6 B 84.7 M Low income countries 238 M 66 M COVAX 2.5 B 945 M WORLDWIDE TOTALS 15 B 1.2 B INSIGHTS Most high income and upper middle-income countries have fully vaccinated more than half of their population. Portugal ranks first having covered 85% of its population followed by UAE (83%) and Spain (78%). The US ranks 18th having 55% of its population fully vaccinated. In contrast, resource limited countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania have only vaccinated less than 5% of their population. In light of the new COVID-19 variants, countries such…
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