29. The U.S. Response to COVID-19, Equitable Vaccine Allocation, and Lessons to Take Away From the Pandemic with Dr. Saad Omer

Because the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us, and there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding vaccine distribution, I wanted to bring an expert—someone who has been directly involved in national and global efforts to combat COVID-19—onto the podcast. That is why, in this episode, I am joined by Dr. Saad Omer, the Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, a professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, and the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. He has served on several advisory panels including the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee and the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Group for Healthcare Worker Vaccination. And more recently, he has been a critical member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicines’ Committee on equitable allocation of vaccine for the novel coronavirus and the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines, both of which have assisted the CDC and the NIH in devising their COVID-19 vaccine allocation system.

Dr. Omer will be answering some questions about COVID-19 in the U.S. and around the world, how he and others devised “equitable” vaccine allocation systems, the new strain of the virus, and how all of us will be impacted by the pandemic years down the road.

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Learn more about Dr. Omer’s work: https://www.saadomer.org

Follow Dr. Omer on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SaadOmer3

NASEM Framework for Equitable Allocation of the COVID-19 Vaccine: https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/a-framework-for-equitable-allocation-of-vaccine-for-the-novel-coronavirus

WHO SAGE Prioritization Roadmap for COVID-19 Vaccine: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/who-sage-roadmap-for-prioritizing-uses-of-covid-19-vaccines-in-the-context-of-limited-supply

Dr. Omer’s interview with Senator Chris Murphy on “What You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine”: https://www.facebook.com/senchrismurphy/videos/1739485072886858

Resources I compiled for this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaYh48vuMLubVn_jW468IRaWOtu_Y6rJQ6YBHrcVvYQ/edit?usp=sharing

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Thanks to mariokhol and Pixabay for the music!