8. The Distribution Gauntlet

The Vax Files

In this eighth episode, The Covax Files takes a mini world tour on some mass vaccinations programs that started in December 2020 and January 2021. Surani speaks to experts in different regions to get a taste of what has been happening on the ground with rollouts in the US, Europe, Israel and India, and the unique strengths and challenges within each region. While the US is facing issues with simply getting vaccinations sites set up to deliver a huge supply of vaccines to patients, the EU is facing the opposite problem with a mobilization plan in place but not enough vaccine to go around. Israel has become the unforeseen world leader of vaccinations after signing a unique data-sharing deal with Pfizer, while India also surprises with some grand plans to not only take care of its 1.3 billion population, but also its neighboring countries. Many countries, especially lower income countries are yet to receive a single vaccine dose, and experts discuss the global distribution challenges that are brought on when rich countries sign private deals to buy doses directly from pharma companies. This episode explores the COVAX facility and how it's set up to ensure equitable access of vaccines across the globe and the broader challenges to counter vaccine nationalism.

Expert Guests:

-- Professor Hani S. Mahmassani is Director at the Northwestern University Transportation Center and William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation. He specializes in multimodal transportation systems analysis, large-scale human infrastructure systems, and real-time operation of logistics and distribution systems.

-- Neeraj Jain, MBA, is the director of PATH’s India operations -- an organization dedicated to health equity and part of the COVAX initiative. He oversees all operations in the country and serves as a liaison between the office in India, PATH headquarters, donors, partners, and national-level ministries.

-- Stefan Walzer is the CEO and founder of MArS market access and pricing strategy, based in Germany. Stefan has more than 15 years experience in payer strategy, pricing, health economics and reimbursement submissions.

-- Julia Barnes-Weise is Executive Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance Accelerator. She is also a Senior Consultant to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) and has been a Consultant to the WHO.