When can the people who still need a Covid-19 vaccine expect to get one? Delve into the supply, distribution and political issues delaying global access to a lifesaving, economy-rescuing marvel — and learn how the world can move forward.

The rapid development of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines has led to the vaccination of more than half the world’s population over the past two years — an unprecedented public health achievement. But the uneven distribution of vaccines has created a stark gap in protection between different countries: While more than 80 percent of the citizens of Brazil, Canada and China are fully vaccinated, for example, fewer than 1 in 10 people have received a single dose in many African countries. In addition to creating a humanitarian crisis, this unequal distribution of vaccines favors the rise of new viral variants, threatening public health everywhere. Why has COVAX, the international initiative created to make sure all countries have access to vaccines, failed to reach that goal? What can be done to get doses to vulnerable populations?

Join us for a conversation with Maria Elena Bottazzi, co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine, and Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, and get your questions answered.

Maria Elena Bottazzi, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine📷

Maria Elena Bottazzi is an internationally recognized tropical and emerging disease vaccinologist, global health advocate, and co-creator of a patent-free, open-science Covid-19 vaccine technology that led to the development of Corbevax, a Covid-19 vaccine for the world. She leads partnerships that advance vaccines for diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest populations, catalyze policies and disseminate scientific information to diverse audiences. She also serves as co-chair of the Vaccines and Therapeutics Taskforce of the Lancet Commission on Covid-19. In 2022, alongside vaccine researcher Peter Hotez, she was nominated by US Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jerome Kim, MD, International Vaccine Institute

Jerome Kim is an expert on the evaluation and development of vaccines and director general of the International Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit devoted to research on vaccines for poor countries. Previously, Kim held the post of principal deputy and chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis at the US Military HIV Research Program. He also served as the project manager for the HIV Vaccines and Advanced Concepts Evaluation Project Management Offices for the US Army in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and led the Army’s Phase III HIV vaccine trial, the first demonstration that an HIV vaccine could protect against infection.

Moderator: Emily Underwood, Science Content Producer, Virtual Events, Knowable Magazine

Emily Underwood has been covering science for over a decade, including as a staff neuroscience reporter for Science. She has a bachelor’s degree in science and technology studies from Brown University and a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University. In 2016-17, Underwood was a Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism, and her reporting has won national awards, including a 2018 National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Award for magazine writing.

This event is part of an ongoing series of live events and science journalism from Knowable Magazine and Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. Major funding for Knowable comes from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

A path to Covid-19 vaccine equity