Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update: Vital. We now have enough vaccines to vaccinate every adult in the globe by the end of the year.

Everything we have should go towards getting those into arms ASAP— particularly with some troubling hints of new mutations. 1/

There are about 5 billion adults on the planet.

3 billion are currently vaccinated. 3.77 billion have had a single shot.

In the last 30 days, we produced 1.3 billion vaccines. We are not far. 2/

Most countries have high vaccination levels.
The first set of countries had the money & the foresight to bet on the right vaccines
The second set of countries had the money
The remaining countries get what’s left when it’s available. 3/

Before we bemoan the wealthy nations, the US has been the primary benefactor to the world, having already bought 1.1 billion doses.

The single thing that set back vaccine deliveries over the year was India’s decision not to export vaccines.

Still…4/

Still you can’t argue that this is an example of the Golden Rule.

No, not THAT golden rule.

But the one that says “he who has the gold makes the rules.”

Vaccines have only trickled into Africa where on a per capita basis they have gotten 1/10th the doses of the ROW.5/

But vaccine supply is no longer the world’s problem. Soon the world, like the US, will be flooded with vaccines we can’t use.

The problem we have now is not just shipping vaccines but vaccinating people. The last mile. 6/

Please take a minute with me to focus on the problem of Haiti.

11 million people live in Haiti
Only 20,000 have been fully vaccinated.

The US donated & delivered 500,000 doses. Now 400,000 are being returned so they don’t spoil. 7/

This story tells many of the stories.

There are millions of Haitians waiting to get vaccinated. The US effort to move the vaccines to Haiti with COVAX was monumental.

And it still failed. 8/

The consequences of this potential failure are profound.

If Delta arrives in a major way in Haiti, as in much of Africa or remote parts of Asia before a vaccine, we could see India levels of death & disease. 9/

Scientists are also worried about mutations.

The US story may be the best example of why. We successfully vaccinated the country against Alpha. If the evolution had stopped there, odds are very good we would be out of the pandemic.

But they didn’t. 10/

Delta came to the US & we have since learned it’s the fastest spreading respiratory disease on record.

It didn’t require a new vaccine but it hastened the need for a booster. 11/

Viral mutations, much like Ron DeSantis, love and prey on the unvaccinated.

12/

But COVID is more effective than a braggy backward radical politician from Florida.

One example of what we’re dealing with. Viruses tend not to want to kill their hosts. So COVID solved that by creating asymptomatic spreaders.

But don’t count DeSantis out. 13/

His saving grace is that the virus counts on people like him. Florida alone is a place where the virus can come back to again & again.

While he calls a special session to sue companies for vaccinating people, he should also change the license plates from a 🍊 to a 🦠. 14/

Enough about rapidly spreading disease in the US. And enough about COVID too.

With recent news that the UK’s 4-fold rise in cases coincides with Delta-plus (now 8% of all cases), the focus on variants is real. 15/

Scientists told me today that a Delta & Beta combination is beginning to worry them. Delta’s mutation spreads too fast to manage. Beta creates difficulty for the vaccine.

Vaccine resistant & highly contagious. (Good taste prevents me from making the obvious DeSantis joke).16/

So what are these last mile issues in developing countries? How do we avoid Haiti & get from the airport into arms?

Local approvals, tariffs, adverse event reporting, cold transportation & storage, syringes, vaccinators, vaccination sites, 2 dose concerns & hesitancy & more. 17/

In a rational world, the entire G-20 would be rallying together to vaccinate adults & eligible kids in Africa & the globe with a focus now on the last mile.

We have moved up our target from the end of 2022 to September. We now need to pull it up to April. 18/

We’ve thankfully pulled our troops out of Afghanistan. It may be time to send them to Africa & Haiti to assist with vaccination efforts & saving lives.

These are the peaceful missions that wealthy nations should take with pride. 19/

What do we owe one another? It’s to do better today what we failed at yesterday.

There was a long time when vaccinations between whites & people of color were very different. Not any longer. It’s because we didn’t give up on each other & made the effort explicit & measured. 20/

Who we are as nations can still be defined over the next few months. The history of our pandemic response is only partially written. Great things can still happen.

Billions of vaccines. Not meant to sit on shelves. Let’s do something. /end

I don’t believe India is at all at fault. Delta is. Thanks for allowing me to clarify.