How to Vaccinate the World BBC

The vaccines are finally here, and countries around the world are running a race against time to get them into our arms as fast as possible. At the moment, Israel is leading the way, and the UK is currently forth in the world for vaccine doses administered. But, if the aim in Britain is to get 15 million people their first jab by mid February, we’re going to have to get more vaccines quickly. And that’s no mean feat because making vaccines is a complicated business, and delivering them isn’t easy either, even when you have the storks of Yeovil on your side. Tim Harford explains why on this edition of How To Vaccinate The World.

Producers: Sandra Kanthal and Josephine Casserly

So, like buses, vaccine approvals, in the UK at least, seem to come in threes. First Pfizer/BioNtech, then Oxford/AstraZeneca and now Moderna have been given authorisation to be rolled out across the country. But, Britain, for the moment, is going it alone deciding to postpone second doses to up to 12 weeks. Is this the right thing to do? It’s a controversial question, and one Tim Harford asks a panel of guests: Professor Beate Kampmann, Professor Akiko Iwasaki and Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on this week’s How To Vaccinate The World.

Producers: Sandra Kanthal and Josephine Casserly

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Epidemiologists don’t often hang out with rock stars, and not many of them can say they’ve played a part in eradicating a disease as deadly as smallpox. But Larry Brilliant isn’t your run of the mill public health official. He’s been warning about the dangers of a pandemic for years, and now that one is upon us, Tim Harford sat down to talk with him about how the world has handled the pandemic of 2020 and what we can hope for in 2021.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal

As the co-founder of Microsoft, and one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates has long been a poster child for geek power. But, through his Gates Foundation, he is also at the centre of the effort to end the pandemic of 2020. In this edition of How To Vaccinate The World, Tim Harford talks with Bill Gates about what he’s doing, what others are doing, and what needs to happen next if we are going to vaccinate a global population against Covid 19.

Producer: Sandra Kanthal

What might the wonderful world of vaccines have in store for us in 2021? And what are the challenges that lie ahead in getting them to the billions of people who need them across the world?

Tim Harford is joined this week by Dr Anna Blakney, Bioengineer at Imperial College London, Dr Nick Jackson from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Natasha Loder, Health Policy Editor at the Economist.

For a vaccine to work, people need to take it. But some are hesitant.

On this week's How to Vaccinate the World, Tim Harford looks at why some people have concerns about taking a new coronavirus vaccine - and discussing how health providers, governments and the media should be responding.

Tim is joined this week by GP Margaret McCartney, Marianna Spring, BBC Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent, and Professor Heidi Larson, Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and author of Stuck: How Vaccine Rumours Start.