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Varsha Venugopal

👤 Person
886 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So the 19 million, we have about 10 million of them in India.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

Exactly.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

And that's where it's really useful to get into some of the details.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

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.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

And by that, what I mean is it's not that kids aren't being provided the vaccine or the facilities aren't there.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

It's more about finding ways to motivate parents to go and complete the immunization schedule.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

Yes.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

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.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

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.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So, yes, absolutely.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

It seems very much a problem of the demand side that we are trying to address through some of our nudges.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So the big ones these vaccines protect against are measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis and others.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So one big player in this sector in the last couple of decades is GAVI, which is the Vaccine Alliance.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

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.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So it has a five-year funding cycle.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

So what that means is that it can negotiate with these manufacturers for a longer term.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

And instead of countries directly negotiating with these manufacturers, it allows it to buy in bulk for a longer period of time.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

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.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

Yes, absolutely.

80,000 Hours Podcast
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India

I think you had some figures there, right?