It felt like déjà vu all over again, as the famous quote goes. Just when we sensed a return to normality, we faced a new variant – Omicron – with rapid case rises threatening our health system and dampening the Christmas spirit. Right now, having seemingly passed the peak, there’s reason for cautious optimism about the path ahead, with our high vaccination rates, testing capabilities, and the hard-working people of the NHS to thank.
There’s a clear lesson from Omicron: we must work to tackle the virus abroad as the first stage of protection at home. Yet the world is still failing to heed this warning as the gap between the availability of lifesaving vaccines and innovations in rich and poor countries persists. The pandemic continues to cause devastation in many parts of the world, at the same time threatening years of progress made against other infectious diseases that result in millions of lives lost every year. And the likelihood of new pandemics is only increasing – the next one could be much deadlier and more destructive at home and abroad. Omicron’s remarkable spread underlines the critical need for the world to work together now, both to defeat this virus and prevent pandemics in the future.
So, what do we need to do now? The global community must focus on three goals simultaneously: end the current pandemic; prepare for future pandemics; and accelerate progress on longstanding epidemics like HIV, TB, and malaria. While this sounds like an uphill battle, in many cases, the same strategies and tools can help us address all three of these challenges. It’s not easy and won’t happen overnight, but achieving these goals starts with investing in scientific innovation.
It was the progress already underway in research and development that enabled scientists around the world to quickly develop vaccines, tests, and treatments for Covid-19. Here in the UK, Oxford University set the pace with a safe and affordable vaccine for Covid-19. The UK’s decades of investment in fighting infectious diseases meant that many of the world’s poorest countries had the basic health infrastructure to continue some of the vital work like routine immunisation, despite the setbacks created by the pandemic. The science behind the breakthrough mRNA vaccines is now being applied to test new TB and malaria vaccines, offering new hope against old foes. It’s never been clearer that global collaboration on innovation is key to addressing pandemics, as is ensuring these innovations reach everyone.
This is the mandate of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Originally created by a coalition of governments and organizations in 2017 following the Ebola crisis in West Africa, CEPI has become a cornerstone of global pandemic prevention, funding research that makes the rapid creation of vaccines possible. As part of efforts to build the critical systems needed to prevent future pandemics, today the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust announced we are increasing our support for CEPI by 50 per cent to £220 million.
To date, CEPI has funded 14 Covid vaccine candidates (six of which continue to receive funding, and three of which have been granted emergency use listing by the World Health Organization), and it continues to work on variants of concern and next-generation vaccines – including a “variant-proof” Covid-19 vaccine – that could protect against current and future mutations of the coronavirus. It is also working with partners to fight six other potentially epidemic diseases, including influenza. CEPI aims to develop and deploy effective vaccines within 100 days of a pathogen being sequenced, a combination of scale and speed that could save millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped launch CEPI five years ago this week because our work on vaccines over the previous 20 years taught us that early investments in R&D played a vital role in saving lives. In March, the UK will host an event to support the work of CEPI over the next five years. This is an opportunity for the UK to continue its legacy as host of last year’s G7, and for leaders to step up their commitment to protecting the world against health threats like Covid-19. The UK Government has committed £276m to CEPI since 2018, and has been one of the world leaders in the domestic vaccine rollout and broader Covid-19 response. But the world now needs the UK and other international donors to step up even more. A truly Global Britain doesn’t just save lives here, it helps saves lives across the world.
To defeat Covid-19 and be much better prepared for pandemics as they arise, we need to come together and support collaborative, multilateral, and innovative public health institutions like CEPI that are focused on protecting everyone. And we need to strengthen these efforts and make these investments immediately. By investing tens of billions in such approaches to global health now, the world will save many trillions later.
