Dr Richard Hatchett
CEO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
Covid-19 vaccines were made in record time, but this still wasn’t fast enough. Speeding up vaccine development to 100 days could better prepare the world for the next outbreak.
The Covid-19 pandemic is fading into history. Yet, the threat posed by infectious diseases has not receded. Outbreaks have been simmering, or surging, worldwide. The changing climate, conflict and reduced investment in global health and disease surveillance create conditions for new diseases to spill over into human populations and spread worldwide.
Outbreaks and pandemics will occur. This is certain. We have an opportunity to prepare now, leveraging advances in the biological sciences, information technology and AI to build a safer, fairer world better prepared for such threats. The adoption of the Pandemic Agreement at the World Health Assembly represents a momentous step forward, but will not, by itself, stop future pandemics.
Collaboration and speed can save lives
During Covid-19, scientists, the private sector, governments and regulators working together reduced the time required to develop a safe and effective vaccine from many years to just 326 days. Yet, that wasn’t fast enough. Millions of lives were lost, the world endured lockdowns that imposed massive social costs, and the economy ground to a halt.
Every day counts in an outbreak, so CEPI’s goal is to accelerate this process and create vaccines against new pandemic threats in as little as 100 days. Modellers at Imperial College estimate that had vaccines been delivered in 100 days during the Covid-19 pandemic, they could have saved an additional 8 million lives and averted $14.3 trillion of economic damage globally. The greatest benefits would have been felt in the Global South.
Achieving this 100 Days Mission
will require a paradigm shift in
the way we develop vaccines.
Getting pandemic ready
Achieving this 100 Days Mission will require a paradigm shift in the way we develop vaccines. We must frontload research and build partnerships before a viral threat emerges.
Much of this work, in fact, has started – but it will take sustained investment, political commitment and unprecedented scientific collaboration to be ‘pandemic ready.’ The next Disease X can strike at any point, but we have the tools to stop it in its tracks, if we choose to.
