Key Takeaways
The following are a few of the main takeaways from COVID-19 Africa Watch’s conversati
on with Gayle Smith, President and CEO of the ONE Campaign:, “We need to make sure that vaccines are available to everyone everywhere because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also the smart thing to do from a scientific perspective.”
, Our mission is ending extreme poverty and preventable diseases. When the pandemic hit, we diverted everything to focusing on a few aspects of the pandemic. One is the urgency of a global response, and that comes out in a number of ways., “What gives me a bit of confidence on this, and I’m always an optimist, is that I think people all over the world get it, are angry about it, think it’s not good enough, we’ve got to do something about it.”
, What gives me a bit of confidence on this, and I’m always an optimist, is that I think people all over the world get it, are angry about it, think it’s not good enough, we’ve got to do something about it., “The key thing will be ensuring that we don’t see what we’ve seen historically, which is that it usually takes seven years for a vaccine that’s available in developed countries to be made available in developing countries.”
, And then there’s something that’s often done with vaccines as was done, for example, with the Ebola vaccine: where there’s an outbreak, you try to encircle it, and vaccinate everybody around it so it doesn’t spread., “My advice to politicians and to leaders would be: this pandemic isn’t about you, it’s about your people. And if you focus on delivering to them, you’ll do very well.”
, My advice to politicians and to leaders would be: this pandemic isn’t about you, it’s about your people. And if you focus on delivering to them, you’ll do very well., “In responding to the pandemic, the world has already spent multiple times what it would cost to prepare the entire world to preventing, detecting, and responding to these kinds of viruses.”
, Then I think of a third lesson that is true of every virus I’ve ever been up against – and I have fought a lot of viruses in my time.
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Dec 12, 2021