Innovation

Experience shows that innovative and evidence-based approaches, when executed well, can dent poverty. With the COVID-19 pandemic threatening to reverse hard-won global gains, the need for policy-relevant research, and for scaling effective solutions, has never been more urgent.

New data shows that investing in getting that first vaccination to children can be a turning point in getting them fully immunised.

In a huge country like Nigeria, ensuring the right people receive COVAX vaccines is not just a question of how, but where. Could geospatial technology, trialled during previous polio campaigns, make a difference?

As the 19th century entered its final quarter, “vaccination” meant one thing: immunisation with cowpox against deadly smallpox. By the end of the 20th century, safe and effective vaccines existed against 26 killer diseases. In the second part of this two-part series, we tell the story of laboratory-designed vaccines.

There are several COVID-19 vaccines being used around the world, but all need to be injected and some need ultra-cold refrigeration. Could next-generation intranasal vaccines be a quicker and easier way of protecting ourselves?

The global response to the coronavirus pandemic, for all its flaws, has yielded impressive results by ignoring traditional bureaucratic and sectoral silos. That should spur us to raise our ambitions for global public health, with an emphasis on universal, equitable, and affordable access to quality care.

At the end of the year 2019, we created an elaborate 2020 plan for our projects at Beyond the Classroom Foundation. As we got closer to our second project scheduled for the end of March, the government imposed a lockdown, banning all public gatherings as part of their attempts to limit the spread of COVID-19, and instantly everything had to be postponed.

To mark the first anniversary of #VaccinesWork, we look back at some of the most read articles on COVID-19 during an unprecedented year for global health.

Overall efficacy is just one metric.

This is the third in a three-part series highlighting key lessons learned since the launch, four years ago, of the Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP), established by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to ensure optimal cold chain equipment is available in low and middle-income countries for vaccines. A prospective study, led by JSI, has identified notable successes and opportunities for improvement in the structure of the CCEOP.