Vaccine Access Quotes

Some very poor countries run great vaccination systems, and some richer ones run terrible programs.

We believe unbelievable progress can be made, in both inventing new vaccines and making sure they get out to all the children who need them.

Finding innovative ways to deliver vaccines to children in developing countries is at the heart of our work. The very fact that we don't have people on the ground but rather work in an alliance with other organizations is itself an innovation that was the basis of GAVI's establishment in 2000.

In places like South Afghanistan, where cultural norms prevent men from entering homes, female vaccinators often make the difference between a closed or opened door.

We’re going to produce all the vaccines we can in order to protect our people. We don’t have to answer to anyone on this.

The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important. That your sense of justice says, why should rich kids - who barely get these diseases and almost never die of them - why should they get the vaccines, when poor kids, who actually do die from these diseases, don't get those things? It's an unbelievable inequity that there isn't that access.

I have seen this happen in recent years with regard to pharmaceuticals and vaccines, where, working together, we are improving access to medicines and vaccines for infectious diseases in the poorest countries.

The GAVI Alliance has achieved many things in its first dozen years, but none more important than helping save more than 5.5 million lives and prevent untold illness and suffering.

[Who owns the patent on this vaccine?] Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?

When the government controls a limited supply, the government gets to decide who gets the vaccines and who doesn't. In some cases, who lives and who doesn't.

We're creating this alliance, GAVI, that has helped buy the vaccines that were in the rich world but not getting to the poor kids, getting a very cheap price and figuring out the cold chain, getting the delivery right, and then funding research for new vaccines. A lot of them are coming along. We've got a meningitis vaccine out, got that through large parts of Africa. That has been a huge success.