The Evidence: Sharing Vaccines – what’s gone wrong?

Discovery

BBC

Science

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The lofty ambition of the global community was that across the globe, those with the highest risk of losing their lives to this virus should be vaccinated first. With 99% of deaths coming in the over fifties, the plan was that everybody in this age group should be inoculated.

But that’s not what has happened. Vaccine supply is in crisis and in Africa, a continent of over 1.2 billion people, only around 20 million Africans have been vaccinated, with only 35 million vaccines landing so far on the continent.

It’s been called “vaccine apartheid” and “a moral outrage” but as South Asia, South America find themselves again, in the eye of the virus storm, largely unvaccinated Africa fears the next wave is heading for them.

Can vaccine nationalism be overcome and scare supply be fairly distributed?

It’s a question that very much concerns Claudia Hammond’s expert panel: Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, Dr Yodi Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance for Covid-19, Professor Andy Pollard from the Oxford Vaccine Group who led the clinical trials for the Oxford/Astra Zeneca (or Covishield) Vaccine and Professor Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine in Houston and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Centre for Vaccine Development in the USA.

Produced by: Fiona Hill, Hannah Fisher and Maria Simons Studio Engineers: Jackie Marjoram and Tim Heffer

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.6	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.
0:08.4	I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced
0:12.2	pundits and the biggest sport stars.
0:14.3	Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'
0:18.5	mouths.
0:19.5	But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.
0:24.9	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to
0:28.8	dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.2	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:35.6	Hello, I'm Claudia Hammond. Welcome to the evidence from the BBC World Service.
0:40.4	Today we're looking at the latest on vaccines which we know represent our only real way out of
0:45.9	the Covid-19 pandemic. Now I can still remember jumping up and down with joy when I heard the very
0:51.5	first results of the first successful vaccine trial and of course after that one came more.
0:56.9	Now the fact we have so many vaccines that work really well is a towering scientific
1:02.4	achievement, but to work they need to reach everybody in the world who needs them.
1:07.6	Now as we watch the virus race ahead across South Asia and Latin America, the risks for people
1:13.5	in countries with no hope of a vaccine anytime soon is stark and calls for action are growing.
1:19.8	Now you've sent us a lot of questions to put to our incredible panel today,
1:24.2	all experts in their field from around the world so let me introduce them.
1:29.0	It's a warm welcome back to the evidence to Gagandip Kang who joins us from a country
1:34.0	truly at the eye of the viral storm at the moment, India. Gagandip is professor of microbiology
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.