Getting vaccines to people who need them is the most important issue in global health

Fear of vaccines has allowed a host of diseases, including measles and whooping cough, to re-surface around the world in recent years. However, the key issue isn’t vaccine safety, it’s vaccine delivery—how we actually get vaccines to, and into, people in order to improve global health. Indeed, even though vaccination (and the health benefits that result) have increased in most developed countries, and become more prevalent in some developing countries, vaccination coverage still varies widely for different racial and ethnic groups and educational levels, as well as for high-risk populations. This disparity in coverage may, at some level, have to do with vaccine fears; but, for the most part, it’s a result of less-than-optimal vaccine delivery. Shipping vaccines around the world There are two basic issues here. And the first one is transportation. Let’s say, for instance, that an effective vaccine is developed in Europe, the United States or India for use in African villages. Right now,...