Webinar: COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Supply Chain Considerations for sub-Saharan Africa
On December. 18th, 2020, CORD Africa hosted experts in global health and vaccine cold chains to discuss considerations around equitable allocation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine candidates for sub-Saharan Africa.
The first speaker, Dr. Omileye Toyobo is an implementation specialist and global health professional. His expertise is in designing vaccine supply cold chains and systems for immunization programs in Africa and Asia. He is currently a technical advisor at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
The second guest speaker, Dr. Luther-King Fasehun is a physician and global public health expert. He is currently an Epidemiology Doctoral Researcher at Temple University in the United States. He previously served as the Nigeria Country Director of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa. He was the first Nigerian to be awarded a Policy Leaders Fellowship at the prestigious European University Institute, Italy.
Dr. Toyobo discussed how potential COVID-19 vaccines will be allocated, looking at a novel conceptual framework developed by Dr. Timothy Attoye which looks at four variables — COVID-19 burden at the country level, vaccine candidate thermostability, the existing vaccine supply chain infrastructure, and the vaccine candidates position in the race to market. Additionally, he explored some challenges that can be anticipated in delivering the vaccines in Africa, and how they can be overcome.
Dr. Fasehun discussed how the countries, their partner agencies, and institutions can effectively and efficiently optimize their resources, and build on their shared intentions to get the COVID-19 vaccines to the Africa population.
The session was moderated by Dr. Ebuwa Igho-Osagie, a physician and healthcare researcher specializing in research methodology and decision making for LMIC health systems. He is currently a Value and Access research Fellow with a global pharmaceutical company and a public health doctoral candidate at Tufts University School of Medicine.
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