Varsha Venugopal
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So the 19 million, we have about 10 million of them in India.
Exactly.
And that's where it's really useful to get into some of the details.
And what we see is while it may be a supply side problem in some of the other countries, in the case of India, it's very much a demand side problem.
And by that, what I mean is it's not that kids aren't being provided the vaccine or the facilities aren't there.
It's more about finding ways to motivate parents to go and complete the immunization schedule.
Yes.
So in other countries, in several regions, it may be something called this last mile problem, which is more about supply chains and getting those vaccinations to these hard to reach areas.
Most of that is fairly well covered in India as a result of government efforts and of other supporters such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and WHO and UNICEF.
So, yes, absolutely.
It seems very much a problem of the demand side that we are trying to address through some of our nudges.
So the big ones these vaccines protect against are measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis and others.
So one big player in this sector in the last couple of decades is GAVI, which is the Vaccine Alliance.
And it's an interesting model where it encourages manufacturers to lower the vaccine prices for the poorest countries in return for long-term high volume and predictable demand from those countries.
So it has a five-year funding cycle.
So what that means is that it can negotiate with these manufacturers for a longer term.
And instead of countries directly negotiating with these manufacturers, it allows it to buy in bulk for a longer period of time.
And this partnership with other organizations such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO and UNICEF and others has allowed it to vaccinate half the world's children at this point.
Yes, absolutely.
I think you had some figures there, right?