VIRTUAL: Global Vaccine Equity Workshop: June 15

Engineering Global Vaccine Equity, 14-15 June

Co-convened by Andrew Barry & Paige Patchin (Anthropocene/Sarah Parker Remond Centre/Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL) and Nele Jensen & Ann H. Kelly (Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, KCL)

The workshop will comprise four informal sessions for academic and research staff to discuss ideas, followed by a public event summing up the two days of conversations.

A Global Biochemical Infrastructure? (15 June, 2-3 pm)

Steve Hinchliffe (Exeter); Andrew Barry (KCL); Richard Rottenburg (University of Witwatersrand); Claas Kirchhelle (UCD); Naomi Tousignant (UCL). Chaired by Ann H. Kelly (KCL)

Vaccine production and distribution demands a complex infrastructure, including the specialist equipment and materials, expertise in biochemical engineering, systems of monitoring, testing and quality control, and dedicated structures for the delivery of vaccines to dispersed populations. To what extent do the demands for equitable vaccine access foster the creation of new biochemical infrastructures? How far does the emergence of novel practices and financing of R&D allow reframing existing equity debates by ‘upstreaming’ equitable access into vaccine design and manufacturing processes? In what way have human bodies themselves become part of the biochemical infrastructure. And what would models of ‘indigenized equity’ from which to build global solidarity look like?

Future Equity (15 June, 3-4 pm)

Luisa Enria (LSHTM); Nele Jensen (KCL); Uli Beisel (FU Berlin); Sharifah Sekalala (University of Warwick); Sarah Green (University of Helsinki). Chaired by Andrew Barry (UCL)

Fuelled by interlocking amplifications of climate change, rapid urbanization, mass migration and conflict, and ongoing structural inequalities, the threat of global pandemics will only become ever more salient. The need to prepare for pandemic risk requires reimagining both the global economy and the local ecologies of vaccine manufacturing and research. What changes need to happen both to reduce the threat of pandemics on a similar scale, and to address the problem of vaccine equity?

Image: Expired ReEBOV tests in a hospital laboratory in Sierra Leone. Photograph by Ann Kelly