Coronavirus vaccines: what’s getting in the way of the global rollout

This week we’re talking to researchers about how COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured – and a battle over the intellectual property rights surrounding them. And we hear from a researcher looking into why China is closing down coal-fired power stations faster in some places than others. Welcome to episode 3 of a new podcast from The Conversation, the world explained by experts.

While some of the world’s richest countries are racing ahead with large-scale programmes to vaccinate their populations, for much of the developing world, the first doses of the vaccines remain a long way off. For the past few months, a group of countries has been pushing for the intellectual property rules around coronavirus vaccines to be temporarily waived temporarily, arguing this would help expand supply and push down costs. Ronald Labonté, Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, talks us through the detail. Meanwhile, Mosoka Fallah, Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences at the University of Liberia tells us what the vaccine situation is like on the ground in West Africa, and Anne Moore, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, at University College Cork in Ireland, explains some of the processes behind making coronavirus vaccines.

In our second story, we talk to Hao Tan, Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia, on his new research on why – and where – China is decommissioning coal-fired power stations. He explains what this shift means for the wider region, and those countries which export coal to China.

And Clea Chakraverty, politics and society editor at The Conversation in France, gives us some recommended reading on a historic child sex abuse scandal shaking France.

The Conversation Weekly is hosted by Gemma Ware and Dan Merino. The show is co-produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Visit The Conversation for full credits.

Further reading:

• Dummy’s guide to how trade rules affect access to COVID-19 vaccines, by Ronald Labonté, Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, and Brook K. Baker, Professor of Law, Northeastern University
• No country is an island: collective approach to COVID-19 vaccines is the only way to go, by Mosoka Fallah, Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia
• How are COVID-19 vaccines made? An expert explains, Anne Moore, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork
• Forget about the trade spat – coal is passé in much of China, and that’s a bigger problem for Australia, by Hao Tan, Associate Professor with the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle and colleagues
• Inceste : au-delà du bruit médiatique, entendre la tragique banalité du phénomène, by Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, Professeur d'histoire contemporaine, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) – Université Paris-Saclay