In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Williams, Australia’s ambassador for regional health security, talks with Katherine E. Bliss about the Australian government’s efforts to strengthen countries’ capacities to deliver health care, including Covid-19 vaccines. She describes what it was like to assume the role of regional health ambassador just as the Covid-19 pandemic was getting underway and discusses the work of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security’s focus on health issues in the...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, countries around the world have seen coverage levels for routine immunizations drop as resources and health workers have been diverted to pandemic response, including the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines. In this episode, Julia Spencer, Associate Vice President for Global Vaccines, Public Policy Partnerships, and Government Affairs at Merck & Company, and Margaret Cornelius, Deputy Director of Private Sector Programs at ThinkWell, join Katherine Bliss to discuss...

Román Macaya Hayes, executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, joined Katherine E. Bliss for a conversation on how Costa Rica has prioritized the equitable delivery of primary health care services to reduce infant and maternal mortality, achieve a high level of vaccine coverage, increase life expectancy, and build trust in the health system. He explained how the country’s network of locally-based health workers develop personal connections with the people and communities...

In this episode, J. Stephen Morrison speaks with Jacob Poushter, an expert in international survey research at Pew Research Center, about Pew’s recent report “People in Advanced Economies Say Their Society Is More Divided Than Before Pandemic.” Jacob explains the main findings of the report and discusses how public perceptions of societal division within advanced economies have changed over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. How are publics in Japan, Sweden, the UK, and other countries...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss is joined by Ben Hubbard, co-founder, and CEO of Parsyl Inc. As the global race to access Covid-19 vaccines heats up, keeping products cold and ensuring their safe delivery to populations that need them becomes ever more important. Assessing the risks to vaccines during critical periods of transit, storage, and distribution, particularly in lower and middle-income countries that may have limited refrigeration infrastructure, involves real-time data analysis...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss is joined by two CSIS colleagues, Jacob Kurtzer, director and senior fellow with the Humanitarian Agenda, and Erol Yayboke, senior fellow with the International Security Program and director of the Project on Fragility and Mobility. They talk about how Covid-19 has impacted migrant, displaced, and refugee communities worldwide and the enormous challenge of reaching these vulnerable populations with health and other services. How has the humanitarian sector...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss is joined by Ken Staley, Senior Associate with CSIS and the U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator under President Donald Trump. Ken shares his thoughts on his time in “the best job in global health,” reflecting on the promise of new innovations in malaria prevention and diagnosis, how Covid-19 has affected efforts to address malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa and the Greater Mekong region, and why he is hopeful that improved data collection and analysis,...

Julie Gerberding, co-chair of the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security and Executive VP, Merck, Inc, joined me at CSIS for a lively conversation with Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI.) Richard walked us through CEPI’s genesis in 2017, its mission to accelerate vaccines against dangerous pathogens, its sudden emergence during the pandemic as a foundational element of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT-A), including its...

This week, CSIS co-hosted the 9th annual Atlanta Global Health Summit with the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, CARE USA, and The Carter Center. J. Stephen Morrison spoke with Dame Sally Davies, the UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance and Master of Trinity College at Cambridge University. She is also the single most impactful person in the last decade on advancing the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She provides an update on the Trinity Challenge she co-founded that...

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed significant health disparities in the U.S. In this episode, Julie Morita, Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shares the Foundation’s approach to a “culture of health” and discusses the challenge of promoting domestic demand for Covid-19 vaccines while ensuring their equitable distribution. She identifies steps that can be taken to restore people’s trust in vaccines, public health, and science; and describes how working with...

In this episode, Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance, joins us to discuss the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. She shares her views on the potential for scaling up vaccine manufacturing in the region, her concerns that more transmissible viral variants may gain a foothold before enough vaccines are available, and her hope that global solidarity around the HIV epidemic in the early 2000s means that it is possible to galvanize collective...

Shortly after the February meeting of G7 leaders and virtual Munich Security Conference, Heather Conley, senior vice president at CSIS and director of the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, joined us to discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on European political and social movements, the importance of European leadership during the Covid-19 crisis, and opportunities for strengthened transatlantic cooperation on Covid-19, Russia, and China. How has the pandemic influenced political outcomes...

Looking ahead to World Immunization Week, 2021, Bruce Gellin, President of Global Immunizations at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, joins us to discuss the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on routine immunization programs and reflect on the challenges and opportunities presented by the rollout of new vaccines to prevent infection with Covid-19. How have lockdowns, social distancing, and the diversion of health workers to outbreak response affected families’ access to immunization services? Are...

To mark World TB Day, Katherine E. Bliss and J. Stephen Morrison speak with Adrian Thomas, TB expert and leader of global strategy at Johnson & Johnson Global Health. Every year, TB kills an estimated 1.4 million people and infects another 10 million people, with about 400,000 of those cases resistant to two or more drugs. Covid-19 has disrupted health systems and displaced funding and frontline staff away from TB, which models estimate will cause an additional million cases per year over...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss and J. Stephen Morrison speak with Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC. The African continent has not seen the high Covid-19 caseload many feared at the beginning of the pandemic. We hear some reasons for this, what the lessons from Africa’s experience with HIV tell us about the steps needed to enable African countries to effectively control the pandemic, and how leadership from the continent is working with COVAX, pharmaceutical companies, and...

This month we were joined by Norway’s Ambassador for global health John-Arne Rottingen on his ‘virtual visit’ to Washington D.C. As co-chair of the ACT Accelerator Facilitation Council, Norway plays a key role in advocating for the development and distribution of Covid-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. John-Arne shared his thoughts on the promise and difficulty of conducting R&D during health emergencies. He also discussed the roles of diplomacy, trust in international...

In this episode, Peter Piot, medical doctor, virologist, and Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reflects on a year of surprises with Covid-19. Why did Europe and the Americas experience so many cases early on, and why are cases accelerating in Africa only now? What role has leadership played in controlling the pandemic and encouraging a stronger commitment to multilateralism and global equity in vaccine distribution? How will the new, more transmissible variants...

In this episode of Pandemic Planet we speak with Asaf Bitton, Executive Director at Ariadne Labs and a member of the CSIS Commission Strengthening America’s Health Security. Asaf Bitton is a practicing primary care physician, a researcher and professor, and a leader in health system innovation. We discuss the vital role of primary health care in creating a healthier, more equitable, and safer world. Why do strong health systems remain an elusive goal despite decades of international...

For our first episode of Pandemic Planet, we are joined by Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. For the past two decades, Gavi has mobilized its network of government, private sector, and civil society partners to make vaccines affordable and available to millions of children in the world’s lowest-income countries. Nearly a year into the pandemic, how has Gavi pivoted to respond to the challenge of the novel coronavirus? How has it worked with new partners to stand up global...