Another Take: What an Ebola outbreak reveals about vaccine inequity
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on February 21, 2021. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
Two viruses, two vaccines, one unequal system: Guinean health officials declared an Ebola epidemic after reporting the first cases of the virus since West Africa’s deadly outbreak ended in 2016. One thing that has changed since that last outbreak: the availability of a vaccine. But like we have seen with the coronavirus pandemic, the existence of a vaccine does not necessarily mean access to one.
In this episode:
- Nicolas Haque, Al Jazeera journalist
- Gladys Archange, Guinea country representative for Catholic Relief Services.
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Marthe van der Wolf. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Malika Bilal, Priyanka Tilve, Dina Kesbeh, Alexandra Locke, Ney Alvarez and Amy Walters.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | Hi, I'm Marta VanderWolf, back with another take, where we bring you episodes from the past. |
| 0:17.3 | This week, Ebola has resurfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing more than 130 people. |
| 0:26.7 | Hundreds more are suspected of having it. |
| 0:30.1 | The World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency as cases spread across the border into Uganda. |
| 0:38.3 | The 2014 West Africa outbreak triggered global panic |
| 0:43.3 | when the Zaire Ebola virus killed more than 11,000 people. |
| 0:48.3 | There's no vaccine for the Bundabudja strain of the Ebola virus in DRC. |
| 0:56.0 | But even if a vaccine were to be developed on short notice, |
| 1:00.6 | another familiar problem would be faced. |
| 1:03.8 | A vaccine's existence does not guarantee access. |
| 1:08.2 | Our episode on International Vaccine Inequity |
| 1:11.9 | originally aired on February 22, 2021. |
| 1:17.1 | All dates and references are from that time. |
| 1:27.4 | There is a general sense of shock and fear, especially fear to relieve the painful period of 2014 and 2016, when the Ebola outbreak took the lives of more than 2,500 Guineans. |
| 1:49.3 | Gladys Arshange is a country representative for Catholic relief services in Guinea. |
| 1:54.8 | Over the past week, her organization has been responding to some grim news. |
| 2:00.3 | Ebola is back. |
| 2:01.7 | Could this be the start of a fresh epidemic? |
| 2:04.6 | Health officials racing to contain the outbreak before it spreads across the country's poorest borders. |
| 2:10.7 | After a spate of new cases, Ginnan health officials declared an Ebola epidemic on February 14th. |
| 2:19.6 | That came days after a separate resurgence of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Guinea's new cases are the first |
... |
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