Health Inc Seminar Series 3.5
Can we move beyond a charity-model in global health? COVID-19 vaccine gap
Seminar 3.5
Can we move beyond a charity-model in global health? COVID-19 vaccine gap
April 11, 2024 | 12 PM – 1 PM | Online via Zoom
Featuring Dr. Lisa Forman is Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Dr. Moses Mulumba, a lawyer and advocate of the High Court of Uganda
About this seminar:
The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines showcased the promise of rapid translation of research into global health interventions. However, countries in the Global South faced, and continue to face, great difficulties in accessing vaccines. This seminar will discuss the root causes of global disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, including key commercial determinants of health such as the commodification of essential medicines and intellectual property regimes. Low and middle-income countries, and especially African nations, prioritized a TRIPS wavier and regional manufacturing capacity as ways to address vaccine equity. In this seminar, researchers will discuss initiatives on the African continent around vaccine manufacturing and the promises and challenges posed by vaccine hoarding, intellectual property rights, pricing, global health law and pandemic treaties to discuss the current state of vaccine equity and what might happen in a future pandemic.
Dr. Lisa Forman is Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and holds a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Human Rights and Global Health Equity. She is an international human rights law scholar whose research explores the contribution of the right to health in international law to remediating global health inequities, including in relation to access to medicines and trade-related intellectual property rights, universal health coverage, global health policy, South African constitutional law, pandemic responses, and COVID-19. She qualified as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa, with a BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her graduate studies include a Masters in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University and a Doctorate in Juridical Science from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law.
Dr. Moses Mulumba is a lawyer and advocate of the High Court of Uganda. He has special interest in International Human Rights, Global Health and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. He is currently the Director General at Afya na Haki (AHAKI). He was the founder the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) where he led ground breaking advocacy work including undertaking making litigations on the right to health. His work focuses on the impact of the global policies on health systems in low income countries and movement building in civil society groups.