THE RACE TO GET SHOTS IN ARMS — As the world works to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by mid-2022, Global Pulse will interview leaders at the COVAX vaccine facility and other large humanitarian organizations about the race to get more shots into arms in low- and middle-income countries. This week, Erin Banco speaks to Benjamin Schreiber, deputy chief of UNICEF's global immunization program, about the race to help countries increase capacity to absorb doses ahead of the July deadline and about the impact of Covid-19 on women and children across the world. (The interview has been edited for clarity.) Is enough supply around to vaccinate 70 percent of the world's population by mid-2022? At current global vaccine production rates, there are enough vaccines to achieve the WHO global vaccination target if equitable distribution is prioritized. To fully vaccinate 70 percent of the global population, at least 11 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines are required, and as of Jan. 11, 9.14 billion doses had been administered worldwide. However, the majority of these doses were administered in high-income countries due to persistent vaccine inequity. Do broad booster rollouts across the U.S., Europe and Asia reduce the supply earmarked for low- and middle-income countries in the first part of 2022? While many high-income countries are implementing or considering booster campaigns, vaccination rates remain in the single digits in many low- and middle-income countries where even health care and other frontline workers remain unvaccinated. In the last few months, vaccine donations from high-income countries made up a significant portion of the supplies that UNICEF delivered via the COVAX initiative to low- and middle-income countries. While the supply situation is improving, donations remain an important part of the overall picture. Well-supplied countries that have pledged to donate Covid-19 vaccines need to make the promised doses available as soon as possible. Why are some governments having problems taking vaccine donations and distributing them? As supply increases, low- and middle-income governments are working hard to roll out nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaigns. Several countries are struggling in surging their health workforce for the general Covid-19 response, and for Covid-19 vaccination in particular. For example, the country may have health infrastructure in place, but too few vaccinators to meet demand. Maybe they haven't been able to recruit and train enough health workers, or maybe they are on strike because the budget is dwindling and they haven't been paid for months. Where challenges have emerged on the demand side, they have been multilayered, compounding and often country-specific but can generally be characterized as either being related to health system capacity; funding; political will and/or capacity; logistics and service delivery; community demand; or crisis, conflict or other catastrophic events How is UNICEF helping low- and middle-income countries prepare for donations and ramping up vaccinations this year? Activating a mass vaccination campaign is challenging, even for a high-income country with advanced infrastructure. Imagine then the challenge for governments in many low- and middle-income countries. They have significant budget constraints, less robust health systems and competing priorities, including outbreaks of other diseases such as polio and measles and ongoing humanitarian emergencies. In what ways have women and children been impacted by Covid-19? Do you see their situation changing in 2022? Covid-19 is the worst crisis for children UNICEF has seen in its 75-year history.
A UNICEF report released in December 2021 found 100 million additional children are estimated to be living in multidimensional poverty because of the pandemic, a 10 percent increase since 2019. At its peak, more than 1.6 billion students were out of school due to nationwide shutdowns. The pandemic has also caused significant disruptions to access to lifesaving health and nutrition services, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Fifty million children suffer from wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, and this figure could increase by 9 million by 2022 due to the pandemic's impact on children's diets, nutrition services and feeding practices. For women, the story is similar. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of Covid-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex. Compounded economic impacts are felt especially by women and girls who are generally earning less, saving less and holding insecure jobs or living close to poverty.
The virus directly impacts women's health, but also the health of women generally is adversely impacted through the reallocation of resources and priorities, including sexual and reproductive health services. | 
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