Equitable Vaccine Distribution: Insights on Covid-19 from past public health emergencies

How can we roll out of vaccines equitably – both across and within countries – to contain the Covid-19 pandemic? The third Yale Development Dialogue explores vaccination efforts from history to shed light on the current challenge.
The pace of development for Covid-19 vaccines was nothing short of remarkable. But, as is often said, vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations do. And a number of challenges stand in the way of equitable vaccine distribution.
What are the most promising strategies to support the roll out of vaccines, in order to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, and allow society to resume many of the educational, social, and economic activities that have been disrupted over the past year? What policies and partnerships can ensure that vaccines reach low- and middle-income countries as well as historically marginalized groups within those contexts?
History offers lessons for ways to deal with challenges ranging from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine nationalism. What are some of the key takeaways for global coverage and acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccine? The issue of trust in public health has posed a problem for decades, and if the global health community can overcome challenges of distribution, there may be an opportunity to build trust ahead of future pandemics.
These issues will be the focus of the third event in a series of virtual panels, The Yale Development Dialogues, a collaboration between the Yale Economic Growth Center and the South Asian Studies Council at Yale MacMillan Center, and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.