16Jul 2021 by Melissa Slogan
How can LMIC countries prepare to receive and efficiently administer large numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses?

How can LMIC countries prepare to receive and efficiently administer large numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses?

News
WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, July 16, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 6.1 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 2.1 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 2.8 billion Low-income country total: 270.2 million COVAX total: 2.5 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 12.9 billion doses INSIGHTS How can LMIC countries prepare to receive and efficiently administer large numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses? Author: Andrea Taylor Of the 3.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been administered globally, only about 69 percent of the doses have been administered in low and middle income countries (LMICs) with 84 percent of the world’s population. Wealthy nations’ over-purchasing of the limited vaccine supply left LMIC nations without access to COVID-19 vaccine doses. However, as these nations start to vaccinate their populations and curb the pandemic within their borders, we are seeing increased donations from over-supplied…
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09Jul 2021 by Melissa Slogan
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT VACCINE EXPORTS

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT VACCINE EXPORTS

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WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, July 9, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 6.2 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 2.3 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 1.9 billion Low-income country total: 306 million COVAX total: 3.1 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 12.9 billion doses INSIGHTS Taking a closer look at vaccine exports Author: Joslin Coggan Many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have yet to receive the vaccines necessary to slow the spread of Covid-19 despite recent purchase and donation agreements. In recent weeks, large scale donations of Covid-19 vaccines have made headlines as the US and EU promised to send hundreds of millions of doses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, many of these deals are yet to be realized as exports have not matched demand. Supply…
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26Jun 2021 by kmitch@duke.edu
Press Release: Regional Action through Data (RAD)

Press Release: Regional Action through Data (RAD)

Blog
Press Release June 26, 2021. The Global Health Innovation Center and Innovations in Healthcare at Duke University have partnered with Broadreach, the InterGovernmental Authority Development (IGAD), the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), Jembi Health Systems, and with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to address the problem of the limited use of data to drive performance in healthcare service delivery to improve health and development outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our goals and objectives of this project are: To address the problem of the limited use of data to drive decision making through the introduction of disruptive technologies To equip and empower key stakeholders to make data-based healthcare delivery decisions, through aligned and harmonized data collection systems that will be used by regional and national partners for evidence-based decision-making…
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18Jun 2021 by Melissa Slogan
THE G7 UNDERWHELMS, WITH NUMBERS THAT DON’T ADD UP

THE G7 UNDERWHELMS, WITH NUMBERS THAT DON’T ADD UP

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WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, June 18, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 6 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 2.2 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 1.8 billion Low-income country total: 271 million COVAX total: 2.4 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 12.7 billion doses INSIGHTS The G7 underwhelms, with numbers that don’t add up Author: Andrea Taylor The G7 began their much-anticipated summit last week with a target to reach 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine in pledged donations for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The result could be described as underwhelming (as well as unclear). To be fair, the US set a high bar early in the week, with a plan to donate 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses (working “with,” but not necessarily through, COVAX). It was going to be…
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11Jun 2021 by Melissa Slogan
HOW CAN INDIA ADDRESS A POTENTIAL THIRD WAVE OF SARS-CV-2 INFECTIONS?

HOW CAN INDIA ADDRESS A POTENTIAL THIRD WAVE OF SARS-CV-2 INFECTIONS?

News
WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, June 11, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 6 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 2.2 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 1.4 billion Low-income country total: 271 million COVAX total: 2.4 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 12.2 billion doses INSIGHTS How can India address a potential third wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections? Author: Nikki Prattipati Starting mid-March 2021, India has become the epicenter of COVID-19 as a second wave of infections devastated the country. India reported 50 percent of global cases and 30 percent of global COVID-19 deaths, and an alarming rate of over 400,000 daily new cases at the height of the wave in early May 2021. While official projections estimate 29 million total infections and 360,000 deaths, low testing rates and the lack of available data lead some…
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04Jun 2021 by Melissa Slogan
HOW DO COVID-19 VARIANTS IMPACT VACCINATIONS AND THE ABILITY TO END THE ACUTE PHASE OF THE PANDEMIC?

HOW DO COVID-19 VARIANTS IMPACT VACCINATIONS AND THE ABILITY TO END THE ACUTE PHASE OF THE PANDEMIC?

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WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, June 4, 2021 [caption id="attachment_1629" align="alignnone" width="300"] Coronavirus and DNA, virus mutation. New variant and strain of SARS CoV 2. Microscopic view. 3D rendering[/caption] High-income country confirmed dose total: 6 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 2.2 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 1.1 billion Low-income country total: 270 million COVAX total: 2.4 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 11.9 billion doses INSIGHTS How do COVID-19 variants impact vaccinations and the ability to end the acute phase of the pandemic? Author: Blen Biru Multiple COVID-19 genetic variants have been detected since the initial SARS-CoV-2 strain was found in China, the most significant of which are classified by the WHO as variants of concern or variants of interest, depending on their attributes and risk level. The variants of concern are…
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28May 2021 by Melissa Slogan
IS VACCINE TOURISM ETHICAL?

IS VACCINE TOURISM ETHICAL?

News
WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Friday, May 28, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 5.9 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 1.8 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 961 million Low-income country total: 270 million COVAX total: 2.4 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 11.3 billion doses INSIGHTS Is vaccine tourism ethical? Author: Blen Biru According to Our World in Data, 1.78B people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 across the world. About 16% of the fully vaccinated (289M people) live in the US, which has a very high rate of vaccination, especially compared to neighboring countries in Latin America. The abundance of available vaccines in the US has attracted foreign travelers from South America and other parts of the world looking to get vaccinated, referred to as vaccine tourism. An estimated 70,000 people from…
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25May 2021 by Melissa Slogan
THE G20 PLEDGE DRIVE

THE G20 PLEDGE DRIVE

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WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Tuesday, May 25, 2021 High-income country confirmed dose total: 5.93 billion Upper-middle-income country total: 1.82 billion Lower-middle-income country total: 959.6 million Low-income country total: 270.2 million COVAX total: 1.96 billion Total worldwide confirmed purchases of Covid-19 vaccines: 10.9 billion doses INSIGHTS The G20 Pledge Drive Author: Andrea Talor The G20 met today in Rome for a Global Health Summit and vaccine equity was at the top of the agenda. According to Reuters, the resulting “Rome Declaration” calls for voluntary licensing and technology transfers to increase production of Covid-19 vaccines globally. The declaration also reportedly mentioned the important role of the ACT-Accelerator (of which COVAX is one pillar) but did not commit to funding it (the ACT-Accelerator still needs $19 billion to reach its goal). A flurry pledges were made…
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17May 2021 by kmitch@duke.edu

Open Letter to the Biden Administration and US Congress Calling for Urgent High-Level US Leadership to Address Escalating Global COVID-19 Vaccine Crisis

Blog
The unprecedented wave of COVID-19 now engulfing India, Brazil, and other nations—and the extreme and widening global inequities in access to vaccines—test our collective conscience and threaten our national security. Worsening mass illness and deaths, a preventable humanitarian catastrophe, are destabilizing, and projected to increase. Urgent action is required to stem global circulation of the virus and the consequent inevitable emergence of new variants, which threaten to undermine Americans’ hard-fought but fragile vaccine immunity, putting lives and economic recovery at risk. President Biden has promised to restore American leadership abroad. The world is now in great need of high-level engagement that up to now has been conspicuously absent—to mitigate death and suffering in the short term, chart a sustained exit from the COVID-19 pandemic in the medium term, and insure…
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15May 2021 by Melissa Slogan
WHAT THE MANUFACTURING LANDSCAPE CAN TELL US NOW

WHAT THE MANUFACTURING LANDSCAPE CAN TELL US NOW

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WEEKLY COVID VACCINE RESEARCH UPDATE Saturday, May 15, 2021 INSIGHTS What the manufacturing landscape can tell us now Author: Andrea Taylor Manufacturing projections for Covid-19 vaccines seem to shift on a near-weekly basis. We are not even halfway into 2021 and already we have seen adjustments, both up and down, across all vaccine makers. 2021 projections differ by vaccine platform Overall, we see 2021 projections increasing for mRNA vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, while decreasing for viral vector vaccines Oxford-AstraZeneca and Janssen (J&J). AstraZeneca, in particular, has faced significant manufacturing issues throughout its global production network. In addition to the well-covered constraints slowing down manufacturing in Europe and the Serum Institute of India, partners in Mexico, Brazil, and elsewhere have struggled to get production started or sustained. Janssen’s vaccine has also experienced setbacks, including the temporary…
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