In this crossover episode with AIDS' Existential Moment, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 30th, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). In this interview, Dr. Feinberg addresses the continued progress in HIV prevention and treatment seen in recent years and outlines the challenges still faced in translating this progress into meaningful impact on the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDs. Turning the tide against HIV will require a decline in new infections, which highlight ..read more

In this crossover episode with AIDS’ Existential Moment, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Katherine speaks with Phelister Abdalla, of KESWA, the Kenya Sex Work Association, and Ruth Morgan Thomas, of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSPW), about the intersection of sex work, HIV/AIDS, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Phelister and Ruth argue that sex workers’ livelihoods have been uniquely disrupted by recurring curfews and lockdowns, noting that this often-stigmatized community has not benefitted from the social protection programs many countries established to ..read more

In this crossover episode with AIDS' Existential Moment, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 31st, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Professor Alan Whiteside, Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair emeritus in Global Health Policy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.     Professor Whiteside begins with a discussion of new treatments and prevention tools for HIV/AIDS that offer the opportunity for those who have access to enjoy longer and healthier lives. But there are still barriers and challenges related to the socia ..read more

In this crossover episode with AIDS’ Existential Moment, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Katherine speaks with Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, immediate past president of IAS and the International Co-Chair of AIDS 2022, about the themes of this year’s conference, “Re-engage and follow the science.” Four years since the last International AIDS Conference took place in Amsterdam, Adeeba discusses the importance of bringing the HIV research, advocacy, and policy communities back together in a hybrid in person/virtual setting to rejuvenate the fight to end the AIDS pandemic ..read more

For our first episode of Pandemic Planet, we are joined by Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. For the past two decades, Gavi has mobilized its network of government, private sector, and civil society partners to make vaccines affordable and available to millions of children in the world’s lowest-income countries. Nearly a year into the pandemic, how has Gavi pivoted to respond to the challenge of the novel coronavirus? How has it worked with new partners to stand up global mechanisms like COVAX? And as we prepare for the largest rollout of vaccines in history, what less ..read more

Katherine is joined by Ann Keeling, Senior Fellow with Women in Global Health and lead author of WGH’s new policy brief, Subsidizing Global Health: Women’s Unpaid Work in Health Systems. Neglecting to pay women appropriately for their contributions to the global health workforce is not new. In 2015, the Lancet Commission on Women and Health estimated that women contribute $3 trillion to global health activities every year but that at least half of that labor is unpaid, with negative implications for women’s professional opportunities in the long term. Katherine and Ann discuss why women take o ..read more

Ted Chaiban, Global Lead Coordinator for UNICEF’s Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), joins Katherine to discuss the state of Covid-19 vaccine coverage across the world; why some countries continue to struggle with low coverage, even as vaccine supplies have improved; and what steps need to be taken to ensure vaccines reach the most vulnerable. Out of the 34 countries that in January 2022 had Covid-19 vaccination coverage of below 10%, 23 have now surpassed 10% and 8 now have coverage above 20%. But while there has been impressive progress, continuing to support countries’ efforts t ..read more

In this episode, Katherine speaks with John-Arne Røttingen, Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway. Whether it’s continuing to fight against Covid-19 through increasing equitable access to vaccines and therapies; understanding how the Financial Intermediary Fund fits into the global health funding framework; what the global response to Monkeypox tells us about the state of international cooperation on health; or addressing the threat of AMR, Ambassador Røttingen reminds us that investing in health security and pandemic preparedness is investing in a g ..read more

In this episode Katherine speaks with Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, about the ways in which the Fund has expanded its grant-making activities to support lower and lower-middle income countries in responding to Covid-19. Noting the importance of ensuring continuity of HIV, TB, and malaria services while addressing the Covid-19 outbreak, he insists that health emergency preparedness cannot be funded at the expense of ongoing infectious disease programs. Rather, HIV, TB and malaria efforts must be viewed as essential elements of strong ..read more

In this episode Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH), talks with Katherine about the outcomes of the recent UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland; why it’s important to integrate a focus on health into global discussions about climate; how people who carry out research on global health and climate issues can frame their findings for policymakers and audiences beyond academia for greater impact; and the reasons the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity, and the pandemic should be seen not as competing prior ..read more