WEBVTT - Health Equity. A Global Challenge that Impacts Us All 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.200 Welcome to Force Multiplier, a new podcast about leveling up 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.840 the impact we can have in the world through our relationships. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.400 I'm barretton Day Thurston and in collaboration with I Heart 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.480 Radio and Salesforce dot Org, I sit with leaders from 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.280 across the public, private, and nonprofit world who are forging 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.560 partnerships to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing us today. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.639 Welcome back to Force Multiplier. What's up? How you doing. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.559 I'm barretton Day, I'm your host. Now today's episode, we 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.480 are going to talk about health equity, which are two 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.880 words that you probably understanding isolation, but together there's a 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.600 lot of different interpretations of that. So I think health 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:52.159 equity means that everybody's got a fair opportunity, adjust opportunity 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.960 to live their healthiest lives. It's not just about access 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:00.320 to medicine or quality doctors. It's the opportunity to live 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.240 a full and healthy life. Now, this is something that 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:09.399 applies globally as well as locally and in one acute 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.399 area right now, it's very present as an issue. I'm 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:19.240 talking to immunization, vaccination. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the Rhona. 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.000 This is a COVID centric episode. Because when COVID showed 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.160 up here in the US and in many places around 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.000 the world, a lot of us got hit with this 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.120 message of unity, like this pandemic is going to bring 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.679 everybody together, is gonna flatten some of the distinctions of 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.880 economics and race and culture in the US and around 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.320 the world. And in some ways it did. We all, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.760 for the most part, upgraded our Zoom accounts right. That 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.160 brought us together. We got brought together on a platform 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.520 like Zoom. But in other ways, COVID has been not 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.800 so much a leveler as a revealer. It's been a 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.000 kind of truth serum, showing us the truth of the 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.000 health and equities we have for too long lived with. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.560 Because some people were overexposed to this virus and continue 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.120 to be so because of the occupations they hold or 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.680 the neighborhoods they live in, and some of that aligns 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:22.320 with their class and their race and their ethnicity. Other 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:26.480 people have been bearing a mental weight of this pandemic 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.120 in an extraordinary way. And then there are those who've 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.680 been hit by that financial impact of the pandemic, again 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:42.560 a burden unequally distributed. This matters because we're not gonna 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.200 be healthy until we're all healthy. That's kind of how 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:52.360 infectious diseases work. And the longer we have large numbers 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:58.280 of people without vaccination, the more their bodies can serve 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:03.760 as incubators to the next variant, which might undermine our 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:08.160 defenses and threaten us in new and more horrible ways 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.200 than COVID has already proven an ability to do. So 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.280 we've all got an interest in all of us being 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:20.120 healthy and COVID showing us what it means when we 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:25.560 succeed and when we fail. Now in this episode, we're 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:30.000 gonna hear from two amazing people who are creating good 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.600 news out of this Maelstrom, because I know a lot 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.000 of the COVID news. It's hard. It's hard. You've got 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.160 political disagreements about who should get vaccinated, is it even real. 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.240 You've got economic disparity. You've got the vast majority of 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.200 the world not even able to argue about whether they 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:47.720 want to take a vaccine or not because they don't 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.080 have access to it. So our first guest, she's working 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.920 on that one. Aurelia Guyen is the Managing Director at 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.640 the Office of the Kovac Facility at the seventy four 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.880 World Health Assembly, quite a title I acknowledge. I talked 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.600 to her about her role in leading the coordination for 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.360 curement and delivery of COVID nineteen vaccines to the vast 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:14.200 majority of the global population in a multilateral, global, cross 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.080 sector partnership kind of way. I don't envy the job 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.640 she has, but I am very impressed that she signed 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.599 up to do this. After that, we're going to hear 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.279 from Dr Dominic Mac. He's the director of more House 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.120 School of Medicines, National Center for Primary Care and leads 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.719 across sector partnership gathering critical resources and data on COVID nineteen, 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.320 using that to connect families to culturally and linguistically appropriate 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:55.880 information and services. I hope you enjoy it. Global health 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:01.520 equity is about how we bring forward a level of 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.919 access to healthcare that everyone can depend on. It's not 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.040 about just coping with COVID nineteen. So it's only through 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.320 really strong healthcare systems in all parts of the world 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.040 that we as a human society will be better protected. 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.200 Aurelia Guyan is the managing director of the Kovacs Facility. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.919 She's dedicated her life's work to enabling equitable access to 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.919 medicines and vaccines for some of the world's poorest and 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:42.080 underserved communities. So can you share with listeners how did 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.680 this organization come to be and what specific problems is 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.080 it trying to solve. So GAVY is a vaccine alliance. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.240 It helps to vaccinate about half of the children in 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.400 the world against infectious diseases that can be deadly or 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.200 very debilitating. It was founded in two thousand and its 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.000 mission is to save lives, to reduce poverty, and to 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:11.640 protect the world against the threat of epidemics and other diseases. 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.400 Since two thousand, GAVY has vaccinated more than eight hundred 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.159 and eighty million children in the world's forest countries. And 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.960 what you get by vaccinating that many children is that 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:28.600 you're saving fourteen million deaths from happening. Gavy's focus seems 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.280 to be so much on equity right, making sure everyone, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.839 as much as is possible, has access to vaccines. Why 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.919 is that so important. It's part of what I would 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.080 think is a fundamental human right in terms of having 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.360 access to healthcare as needed. So it's a question of 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:51.039 equity that regardless of where you are born, you will 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:57.440 have access to vaccination. There's also the economic argument. Diseases 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.480 circulate very very rapidly, and so having a small portion 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.600 of population protected or even a country doesn't mean that 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.159 we can re engage in trade, in travel and the 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:14.720 viruses keep circulating. And then lastly, perhaps from an evolutionary perspective, 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.960 as we've seen with the emergence of variance, as long 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.560 as viruses circulate, they continue to evolve, and so again 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.840 making sure that everyone is protected regardless of where they 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.720 live is really important in terms of being able to 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.280 have ultimately a lasting response, whether you live in a 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.400 rich country or in a poor country. Is the lack 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:43.000 of equal access to vaccines due to the high cost 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.120 of vaccines, that due to production challenges that due to 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.440 intellectual property laws. What's the hold up? Yeah, it's been 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:56.800 a longstanding problem and it's definitely been amplified by COVID nineteen. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:02.040 At the basis, there isn't an off vaccine manufacturers in 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.280 the world, or they're very concentrated in some of the 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.280 richer countries. So this is a problem that my organization, Gaby, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.760 we've been working to remedy for some time. When the 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:19.280 organization started, I think it was buying vaccines from five manufacturers, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.360 most of which were in rich countries. Two decades later, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.880 we buy from seventeen suppliers, more than half of them 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.520 in Africa and Asia, in Latin America. And so the 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.559 work that I do and that I've been doing even 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.839 before the pandemic, we call it market shaping. Essentially, by 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:42.560 creating a sustainable and a predictable market, you encourage manufacturers 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.480 to come in and it helps create the right sort 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.840 of competition in terms of getting the best vaccines, in 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.480 terms of getting more affordable vaccines, and also getting the 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.960 volumes that we need to vaccinate very very broadly. And 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.480 so as the managing director of the COVAC Facility, I've 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.880 been pooling all of the demand from the country so 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:08.680 a d countries and then contracting for two billion doses 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.640 for this year and making sure that we have that 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:18.160 supplied coming online. On the surface, vaccine hoarding makes some sense. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.960 I mean, we in the United States had this policy, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.480 which is we're gonna distribute to ourselves first and then 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.839 whatever is left over we'll give to the rest of 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.360 the world. We're not the only nation to have approached 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.400 it this way. But how do you define vaccine hoarding 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.319 and how do you convince a nation's leaders to choose 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.040 a different path, one that might seem a bit more 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.080 selfless and not in their own self interest. Essentially, the 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.480 way that I read it is that it's an action 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.320 a government will take to use its wealth, or to 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.440 use its position of power, to procure more vaccines than 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.640 they really need. And I think there are lots of 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.720 reasons why this could happen. Governments need to be answerable 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.760 to a citizens. Also, when this crisis happened, we didn't 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.680 know which vaccines would work, in which vaccines would not, 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.800 and so um, there were many contracts for many different vaccines. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.120 But that's not to say that there haven't been I 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.400 think deliberate cases of vaccine hoarding that I think we're 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.400 motivated more from a sort of political or sort of 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:25.080 financial type of agenda. A lot of the early supply 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:29.520 that we were counting on was from India for international use, 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.920 and of course, with the very devastating Second Wave in India, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.760 those vaccines were used domestically and weren't available. And so 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.440 we have a diverse manufacturer based so that if there 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.920 are instances, their impact is as limited as possible. And 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.560 then as countries get took place like in the United States, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.320 where vaccine coverage is reaching a high level enough then 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.520 being able to really be able to access the excess 0:10:55.520 --> 0:11:00.000 supply for international rollouts through vaccine donations, I think is criticals. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.960 So it's about really being able to move into a 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:08.040 different space from a domestically focused response to an international 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:12.680 focused response. These nationalistic leaders, do they understand that a 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.360 more vaccinated world is safer for everyone in that world. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.559 I think it's been a slow realization as the pandemic 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.840 has evolved. I think it's been a bit of a 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.199 wake up call in terms of really understanding that this 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.600 very often used phrase of no one is safe until 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.080 everyone is safe. What it means in practice, which is 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.360 vaccination within one's borders is not going to be enough 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.839 to protect one's populations. We've dabbled around it, but we're 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.440 going to get right to it now. Kovacs a term 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:50.760 I hear on global radio broadcasts and my news feeds, 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.640 but many of us don't fully understand what is this 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:59.520 Kovacs collaboration, who's involved, and what is Gavvy's role in it. 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.760 So it was a partnership of four organizations, so my 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.120 own GAVY, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:13.360 Innovations or SEPPI, the World Health Organization and Unit SEF. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.160 And basically what these four organizations did is they brought 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:23.880 together the experience in development, procurement and rollout of vaccines, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.960 really focused on COVID and so within KOVACS we brought 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.559 together a hundred and ninety three governments. So that's about 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:38.200 the global population into a multilateral global effort. And I 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.840 think it's the largest efforts since the Paris Climate Agreement. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.600 In terms of the numbers of countries that came together, 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.840 this collaboration sounds a bit miraculous, from the number of 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.320 countries to the amount of dollars to the number of 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.359 doses that are on your road map. What is everyone's 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.200 role within KOVACS, Like what does w h O doing 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.120 That's different from what gavvy is doing, different from SEPPI 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.560 and UNSF. So if you think about sort of the 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.120 journey a vaccine needs take, each of the organization has 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.079 a little bit of a piece of that journey. So 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.280 SEPI has very much been focusing on the research and 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.840 development side, making sure they were getting the best science 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.960 in the fastest time. GAVY has really been looking at 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:26.080 the financing the procurement of the vaccine contracts with the manufacturers, 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.240 and then thinking about how to deploy in countries. The 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:34.600 World Health Organization has all of the normative functions if 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.319 you like, you know, is the vaccine safe and effective? 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.319 Are we going to need boosters? What do we think 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:44.320 about variant vaccines? And then newnes SEF is very much 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:48.440 doing the rollout the shipment, making sure that everything is 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.240 in place so that ultimately the vaccines can get to 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.640 the countries and then get through to the vaccination centers. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:59.080 So it's that little journey the organizations coordinate together to 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.959 bring a vaccine from a lab to arm with so 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.880 many moving parts, with such high expectations and requirements around this, 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.680 what's the hardest part of maintaining this collaboration. I think 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:17.319 that the hardest part of maintaining collaboration is that things 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:21.720 are moving so fast. We're still understanding a lot about 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:26.560 the disease, about how efficacious the vaccines are. We're trying 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.640 to make sure that we can do things as quickly 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.680 as possible. Usually they would happen over ten years. Here 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.040 we're asking people to do things in ten days, and 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.120 that really involves a huge amount of communication, and I 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.880 think it really implies making a lot of decisions with 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.120 imperfect information at times, and so I think having a 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.760 real premium on communicating as much as possible the best 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.600 information that we have and being able to understand whose 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.960 best place to make the decision and whose best place 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.080 to act on it. That's the number one challenge. I've 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.840 known people who've worked in international development, and there's been 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.240 a criticism of a top down sort of imposition of 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.440 a solution on a local community. How does Kovacs with 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:20.360 Gavvy work to involve local communities in decisions about something 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:24.560 as intimate and urgent as this COVID nineteen vaccine rollout. 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.520 For me, vaccination is really only going to be successful 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:34.600 if it's about empowerment. That's the individual, it's the family, 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.760 it's the community. And then beyond that, of course you 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.040 know the health system, the government. But really at the 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:45.000 heart of it is making sure that there is very 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.720 very strong community involvement, from the healthcare workers, from the 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.520 volunteers who go into communities and do the outrage. It's 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.040 interesting to think that outside of the context of COVID, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.560 in developing countries, usually there is a strong acceptance of 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:06.400 vaccination because people are familiar with very deadly diseases and 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.080 understand the role that vaccines have. And we see people 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.800 walk very very long distances, wait for hours to make 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:18.040 sure that their children are protected. And so making sure 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.440 that people understand the benefits the risks of vaccination in 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.680 a way that's really meaningful to them. That's driven from 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.040 within in terms of the decision making on the ground. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.320 What role does a local partner play in the decision 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.480 about how some of this global collaboration lands in their community. 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.360 So in Gavy, we have a board that also brings 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.400 in all of the voices of the different actors, be 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.600 it the donors, the technical partners, the implementing countries, but 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.160 also the civil society organizations. And so for any of 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.360 the strategic discussions that take place or any of the 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.800 big financing investments, those are brought together where everyone has 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:00.600 a voice at the table. Every one is able to 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.200 deliberate and give an opinion, so that they very much 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.639 can see themselves reflected in the decision making, not just 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.879 being sort of a passive recipient of funding that's being 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.679 asked to do things. That's good. I'm glad to hear that. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.199 In all of the levers and connections and links in 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.560 the collaboration of this size. What would you say is 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:27.320 the force multiplier in making it effective? I think the 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:33.280 force multiplier is around how each of the organizations are 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.520 able to bring what they do best aimed towards a 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:42.240 single objective, around getting vaccinations out and around ultimately saving lives. 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.919 And so it's about using the private sector for the 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.280 expertise they bring, the vaccine manufacturers for the R and 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.240 D they do, the technical partners for all of the 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.679 knowledge they have, the countries who want to save the 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.240 lives of their citizens, and really bringing them together in 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.640 a way that's quite the opposite of the lowest common denominator, 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.080 but actually being able to build more than each individual 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.439 partner would be able to do, and bringing it all 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.960 together in one vision. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.119 I want to talk to you a bit about your 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.080 your personal experience in all of this. As far as 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.600 I've discovered, you studied as an accountant with a focus 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.199 on health policy, planning and financing. Did you always know 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.240 you wanted to work in the area of health and 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:32.040 health care? I mean, I've dedicated my whole career pretty 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:37.960 much to enabling equitable access to medicines and vaccines. It's 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.359 a little bit my north star, but I would say 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.320 I never expected to be in a position like this. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:50.000 But even going back to my days at university, I 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:55.000 was really fascinated by how science through drug discovery can 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.240 really make a huge impact to people's lives, and particularly 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.440 in developed in countries. So what I did is, over time, 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.679 I brought together my technical skills and finance. I brought 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.840 my fascination for the impact of medicines and the vaccines, 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:16.480 and then my passion around the health inequities in developing countries, 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.440 all of those together. So it is an honor, I think, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:22.760 to be able to do the work that I do 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.000 today and I think hopefully we'll make a difference to 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.960 this pandemic. You describe this as your north star, and 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:35.440 having such an interest in the health of developing nations, 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.159 where does that come from? And I think for me, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.480 I SIT's a little bit with a foot in two worlds, 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.479 having sort of a French and a Vietnamese heritage in 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.960 terms of developed world and developing world, and maybe being 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.000 able to sort of see the contrasts in the levels 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.280 of healthcare that people have access to the impact that 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.399 it has on their lives, So I think maybe it 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.480 was very much through personal journey that I got more 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.840 and more interested and wanted to see how I could 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.280 reconcile a little bit the two worlds that I come from. 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.480 It seems like you have one of the most pressure 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.120 filled jobs I could imagine on the planet right now, 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:23.440 helping find ways to equitably distribute a much needed vaccine 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.920 to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.639 as safely as possible. Do you have doubts or fears 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.840 about your role in this at any time? I think 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.440 the way that I approached it is really focusing on 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:45.440 doing everything I could do to ensure that Kovac succeeded. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.960 And for me, that's because Kovac is the only global 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.920 actor in this whole crisis that was going to look 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.879 at COVID nineteen vaccine access for everyone. And there is 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.359 a lot of pressure because it's drawn a lot of attention, 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:05.640 and that comes with the negative, the detractors, the naysayers, 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:08.440 And I don't think I would say that we've got 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.600 everything perfect by any stretch of imagination. I mean, we 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.000 are building a ship while sailing it, so to speak. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.480 But we really have to I think stay focused on 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.359 the fact that at the moment, no one else is 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.639 looking at this global crisis in a global manner. Without Kovac, 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.840 the world would be in a worse off position. But 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:30.600 that's not to say I'm not feeling out of my 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.720 depth several times a day. Possibly I have a good 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.000 friend of mine who likes to remind me. Shehes and 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.359 says that, you know, with the pandemic, the world is 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:41.919 out of its depth, So perhaps I'm not so different 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.639 to the rest of the I like that, but ultimately 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.040 focusing on what do we need to do to end 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.000 the acute phase of this pandemic, and just doing it 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.040 one step at a time. It's one manufacturer deal, it's 0:21:55.359 --> 0:22:00.280 one vaccine delivery, it's one vaccine injection at a time. Yeah, 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.400 one shot at a time. I want you to imagine 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:07.320 that there is a leader or future leader listening to 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:09.960 you right now who's going to end up in a 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:15.840 position of multilateral collaboration on an epic scale in their 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.240 own life, in their own future. Given what you've been through, 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.600 given what you're in the middle of right now, what 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:26.240 advice would you offer this person. I would say, find 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.560 your north star and don't worry too much about the labels, 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.880 whether you're working in the private sector, in the public sector, 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.440 in the government, whether you're working as a technical this 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.920 or a managerial that, find the building blocks that you 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:47.360 need to chart that road and keep pushing for it 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:52.800 and surround yourself. Will thank you, Aurelia for this wonderful conversation. 0:22:53.560 --> 0:23:11.480 Keep pursuing your north star. Thanks. You're listening to a 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:16.520 podcast called Force Multiplier, Action meets Impact. Now you've probably 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.600 grown to expect ads inside your podcast, but we're gonna 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.440 do something a little bit different to walk the walk. 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:25.639 We're gonna take a quick break and hear from one 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.120 of the organizations featured in this episode. Be right back. 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:36.240 One year ago, Gavy launched the Kovacs Advanced Market Commitment, 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:42.960 an innovative solution for an unprecedented pandemic designed to ensure 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:46.680 no country misses out on vaccines that offer us all 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:51.960 a route back to normality. Twelve months later, KOVACS has 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:56.440 a long list of accomplishments. Vaccines have been approved for use, 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:00.440 countries are ready to receive them, a scheme to help 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:05.160 people access compensation is in place, and one point three 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:10.119 billion doses are contracted to KOVACS. But we now face 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:13.800 a fork in the road. Down one road lies a 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:17.200 two tier world in which the pandemic continues to rage, 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:22.119 economies continue to be hit, the vulnerable are thrown into 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:28.240 extreme poverty, and variants continue to evolve. The Kovacs a 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:31.880 MC can help put us on another path in which 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:36.959 we defeat this virus together united. But to do this, 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:41.600 the a m C needs urgent resources. It needs long 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:45.320 term financing to help the am C evolved as the 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:50.280 pandemic evolves. It needs argent doses donated from countries with 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:55.720 vaccines to spare. And it needs the connective will of governments, financiers, 0:24:56.000 --> 0:25:01.359 civil society, and vaccine manufacturers to leave no one the time. 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:12.440 Kovacs is committed to deliver. Hey you, it's Baritone Day, 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:15.360 host of the podcast you're listening to right now. When 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:17.159 I was a kid, my mom told me to come 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:19.680 up with a system we could live under after democracy 0:25:19.720 --> 0:25:24.080 had failed. Yeah, my mom was intense. I haven't finished 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:26.840 that assignment, but I did make a podcast. It's called 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:30.640 how does Citizen? With Baritone Day. It reimagines citizen as 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:33.879 a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power. 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:37.480 Find seasons one and two and whatever podcasts app using 0:25:37.600 --> 0:25:41.479 right Now and Season three All about Tech drops in October. 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:50.119 Learn more at how does citizen dot com? So, as 0:25:50.160 --> 0:25:54.480 we've heard, health equity is undoubtedly a global issue, but 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:58.080 none of us is like a global person. We live somewhere, 0:25:59.119 --> 0:26:03.320 You live, some fair So what does health equity mean 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:07.399 for you, for your neighborhood, for your community? Have you 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:11.720 noticed among your own family people who are struggling not 0:26:11.840 --> 0:26:14.119 because of choices that they made, but maybe because of 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:18.480 choices they're unable to make. Have you noticed in your 0:26:18.560 --> 0:26:22.119 daily life and the workers and colleagues and other people 0:26:22.200 --> 0:26:26.040 you interact with, who's living a healthier life and who 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:29.479 is and who has access and who doesn't. We had 0:26:29.520 --> 0:26:33.000 an opportunity to speak with Dr Dominic Mac, director of 0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:35.960 the more House School of Medicines, National Center for Primary 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:40.160 Care and the National COVID nineteen Resiliency Network. Check it out. 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:48.760 The National Center for Primary Care is a research training 0:26:49.119 --> 0:26:54.919 center that provides resources to strengthen the primary care system 0:26:54.920 --> 0:26:59.080 so we not only identify inequities in health when it 0:26:59.119 --> 0:27:03.320 comes to primary care and primary care related health concerns, 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:10.760 but also to produce solutions and community oriented primary care 0:27:11.240 --> 0:27:14.800 is significant to the n C PC or the National 0:27:14.840 --> 0:27:18.800