Is There a Need for Self Reliance?

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Many countries that were producing vaccines actively put essentially bands on exporting those vaccines to other places until they had enough to support their own communities. And it's those deep scars, which i think of is the key response. People in these countries have that memory, and its really underlines why there is such a strong appetite to try to divorce themselves from the control of these big pharmacutical players.

Inequity has been a central feature of the COVID19 pandemic. From health outcomes to access to vaccines, COVID has pushed long-standing disparities out of the shadows and into the public eye and many of these problems are global. In this episode of Coronapod we dig into a radical new collaboration of 15 countries - co-led by the WHO, and modelled on open-science. The project, called the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub, aims to create independent vaccine hubs that could supply the global south, and take on the giants of the pharmaceutical industry in the process. But the road ahead is long - the challenges are complex and numerous, and the odds are stacked against them. But at a time when stakes couldn't be higher, momentum is building and if successful, the tantalising possibility of an end to a dangerous legacy of dependence looms. Can it be done? And if so, what needs to change to make it happen? We ask these questions and more.

News Feature: The radical plan for vaccine equity

This project was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

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