Jhpiego/Arete/Saiyna Bashir
It’s a journey that starts in freezers, both large ones organized at a national level and smaller ones at local pharmacies and health facilities.
Inside
the journey to vaccinate the world against Covid-19
Across four continents, health workers are navigating remote landscapes and bustling cities to bring protection to lower-income countries.
By Vox CreativeSCROLL DOWN
The global Covid-19 vaccination rollout has been an immunization campaign unlike any other in human history.
Jhpiego/Karen Kasmauski
Jhpiego/Arete/Saiyna Bashir
But depending on where someone lives, it can make many more stops after that on the way to getting shots in arms.
To reach people in remote communities, like those 12,500 feet above sea level and deep into the Amazon jungle, the international health nonprofit Jhpiego has supported a tireless vaccination rollout
where nurses lug vaccines in handheld coolers over bridges in Ecuador
and community health workers wade through rivers in Rwanda with lifesaving shots in hand.
In South Africa, the lime green “Vaxi Taxi” travels to pop-ups in underserved neighborhoods of Cape Town
in order to vaccinate South Africans wherever they are, from malls to bus stations.
In the urban center of Baltimore, pregnant women get vaccinated at a community “baby shower”
while in rural Bulawan, Philippines, nurses vaccinate children during school.
This massive effort has helped Jhpiego get more than 12 million shots into arms over the past two years.
Its work is part of an unprecedented campaign to get vaccines to the farthest reaches of the globe in order to control the pandemic.
Since the Covid-19 vaccine was first made available in December 2020, vaccination rates have risen to more than 60 percent worldwide.
For some, getting the vaccine may be one of their first experiences with a coordinated health system.
“For lower-income countries that have never immunized adults, this helps pave the way for future life-course vaccination, that is: regular programs to reach adolescents and adults with new and existing vaccines,” says Dr. Christopher Morgan, Jhpiego’s head of immunization.
Even though each setting looks different, the hope is that the shot can be just the first step in a continuing health journey.
Learn how you can help make a difference in Jhpiego’s work to vaccinate lower-income countries against Covid-19.
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