15Mar 2022 by Melissa Slogan
Building vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa: what progress has been made and is it enough?

Building vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa: what progress has been made and is it enough?

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. March 15, 2022 By Beth Boyer and Andrea Taylor Local manufacturing capacity has been highly correlated to earlier access to life-saving health interventions, as demonstrated with COVID-19 vaccines. The concentration of COVID-19 vaccine production in high-income countries (HICs) – particularly for mRNA vaccines – contributed to the unequal distribution that continues today. Most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) had to depend on vaccine imports for their supply. There are some notable exceptions, such as India and China, where strong pre-pandemic investments in vaccine manufacturing capacity meant they were ready to produce doses at scale in 2021. But for most LMICs, reliance on vaccine shipments from other countries often meant they were at the back of the delivery queue and subject to delays from export restrictions.…
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08Feb 2022 by Melissa Slogan
Pills to Treat COVID-19 are Here…Sort Of

Pills to Treat COVID-19 are Here…Sort Of

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The Launch and Scale Speedometer blog series. February 8, 2022 By Andrea Taylor We are excited to release data on purchases of therapeutics to treat COVID-19. The latest numbers are available from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at the Launch and Scale Speedometer project here. Oral therapeutics for COVID-19 have been heralded as a game changer, with the first two recently coming to market from Pfizer (Paxlovid) and Merck (molnupiravir). For the past year, vaccines and social distancing measures have been our only significant tools to combat COVID19. As we try to prepare for whatever comes after the omicron variant, which caused infection and hospitalization rates to surge globally, oral therapeutics provide one more line of defense, particularly for those at most risk of bad outcomes. It is important to note that the…
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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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