COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out across the world with priority being placed on healthcare workers and our most vulnerable citizens but while some countries are hoarding vaccines others are suffering while cases escalate beyond control. Tara Stewart chats to Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi Vaccine Alliance, and Eamonn Faller, Doctor and infectious disease specialist, about how the developed world can step up to ensure low and middle-income countries are protected from the virus and the long-term benefits of vaccine equity. Listen up for Lucas Garvey's dystopian speculation with the FUTURECAST.

Anuradha Gupta is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Since joining Gavi in 2015, Anuradha has led efforts to put equity and gender at the centre of Gavi’s programmatic planning and to tailor support to countries within Gavi’s strategy. She has also driven efforts to create a new model of country-level Alliance support, through the establishment of the partners’ engagement framework (PEF). At the same time, Anuradha has helped to improve country ownership and leadership of Gavi-supported programmes while enhancing accountability for results. In 2019, Gavi received the prestigious Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award for providing sustained access to childhood vaccines in the world’s poorest countries, saving millions of lives and highlighting the power of immunisation to prevent diseases.

Prior to Gavi, Anuradha served as Mission Director of the National Health Mission of India, where she ran the largest – and possibly most complex – public health programme in the world with an annual budget of US$ 3.5 billion. A passionate and influential advocate of women, young girls and children, Anuradha played a leading role in India’s efforts to eradicate polio transmission, reduce maternal and child mortality and revitalise primary health care.

Anuradha has contributed towards a number of important global health initiatives. She served as a member of the Steering Committee for Child Survival Call to Action, co-chaired the Stakeholder Group for the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning and was a member of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) Reference Group. Anuradha served as Co-Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and is currently a member of the PMNCH Board. She also played a role in shaping the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and is a member of the GFF Investors Group. From 2015-2018, Anuradha served on the Merck for Mothers Advisory Board.

Eamonn Faller is a doctor and infectious disease specialist currently based in Cork University Hospital, after originally graduating from Medicine at Trinity College Dublin in 2012. Eamonn has been heavily involved in the medical response to COVID-19 by treating patients on the frontline since March 2020. He is a first-named author on four peer-reviewed papers accepted for publication in the area of COVID-19 and is involved in a number of other areas of research.

Eamonn completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Liverpool in 2016 and subsequently worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on a HIV project in Nyanza Province in Kenya, in 2017, where he also participated in MSF's response to post-election unrest. He is currently completing an MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management in the London School of Economics. He has contributed several articles, made media appearances and attended a Dail Committee in various patient advocacy areas including HIV, the National Children’s Hospital and Direct Provision in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.