Lessons From the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout – Duke Global Health Institute

Imran Mirza, a health specialist and global lead for UNICEFs COVID-19 Program, applauded the expedited vaccine rollout, but said the pandemic exposed many health systems weak infrastructure to handle patient overflow and mitigate burnout for health workers.

This is the time to build up those systems and whats required such as human resources, Mirza said, noting the world is still in a pandemic. We need to start thinking about this now. All the risk is not gone, its still there.

But the speedy arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, which were developed in less than one year, also holds lessons for future vaccine rollouts, the panelists noted. Wenhui Mao, Ph.D., assistant director of programs for the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, says the expediency of the vaccine allowed it to reach vulnerable populations much sooner. On average, some vaccines can remain in the research and development stage for up to a decade.

Imagine if we could reduce this time by years, she said. It could save lives and protect people. Lots of innovative practice was used to promote the COVID-19 vaccine.

Chizoba Wonodi, Ph.D., an associate scientist of global disease epidemiology and control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, focused on where people received vaccine doses. In addition to hospitals, public health leaders turned facilities such as stadiums into vaccination sites and deployed mobile vaccination clinics to provide access for rural patients.

Fixed posts are important to get people to vaccination sites, Wonodi said, adding theres still room for flexibility in that area. Solutions for this can be more options for walk-in shots and arranging internet access [to make appointments] for those who need it.

Udayakumar highlighted the importance of discussing COVID-19 holistically, through all phases of testing, treatment and immunization, as a guide for how the world can respond to future health crises.

Understanding what happened from an end-to-end perspective will allow us to take some of these lessons to heart, he said. And be better in everything we do moving forward.

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Lessons From the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout - Duke Global Health Institute