United against Corona? For a fair global vaccine distribution

To defeat the Corona pandemic, a comprehensive global supply of safe and affordable vaccines is needed. This requires bold political decisions, intelligent solutions from the business sector and the coordination of a wide range of actors and processes through international organisations.
A relaxation of patent protection and investments in local production in developing countries would facilitate the supply. But in any case, infrastructure must be developed and cooling of vaccines during transport and storage must be ensured. DHL is currently building medical supply chains to distribute more than ten billion vaccine doses from hubs operating worldwide.
To make Corona vaccines accessible to low-income countries, the WHO co-led procurement mechanism COVAX was established at the beginning of the pandemic. Its goal is to provide all 180 Member States with vaccine doses for 20% of their populations.
Together with the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr. Maria Flachsbarth, the CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Middle East & Africa, Amadou Diallo, and the Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs at Merck KGaA, Dr. Petra Wicklandt, we discussed in a small group how we can meet these challenges and set an impulse for Germany’s role in the pandemic response. You can find out more about our speakers here.