Vaccinate the world in 2021 or risk new strains that will set us back a year.

A big ambition. We thought the hardest part would be developing a cheap, easy to store vaccine.

Wrong.

The challenge is confidence. Only can fix it. Today we @InstituteGC set out how. [THREAD]

We need to show benefits of ALL vaccines to balance focus on v. rare risks of adenovirus vaccines ( @AstraZeneca & @JNJNews) because - easily stored, non-profit & affordable - they're the workhorse vaccines. Just look at cost difference:

Adenovirus vaccines make up over half of projected global supply of approved vaccines (in chart below - h/t UNICEF). Of 17.4m delivered COVAX doses, a staggering 17m have been AZ according to @CNN) --> https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/16/africa/vaccine-inequality-blood-clots-intl-cmd/index.html

Failing to show benefits creates a vacuum where misinformation and hesitancy thrives. This impacts real world decisions in EU, USA and:
- No longer rolling out AZ
- Disposed of 60k AZ doses
- Got rid of 13k AZ doses
Denmark has alternatives but South Sudan and Malawi?

Why the UK? We're unique, obvs. The only ones rolling out both adenovirus and mRNA vaccines - inc. 21.6m AZ doses! We're sitting on precious data showing benefits of BOTH vaccines. Make this available now & regularly. Here's me telling @GMB that earlier: https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1384738581055475714?s=20

We need whole numbers not confusing percentages of cases, hospitalisations and deaths broken down by vaccine status, type and age.

There's precedent in but only for Pfizer () Of course, data should be interpreted by peeps smarter than us @PHE_uk.

We're confident that with variables properly accounted for and expert minds pouring over data, a clear comparison can be made that will show:
Vaccines work
Non-profit vaccines work as well as £££ ones
This will restore credibility and we can get on with vaccinating the world.

Here's Tony Blair doing an inevitably excellent job talking about report on @SkyNews and you can hear him on @BBCr4today from around 7.50am. https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1384785828807946240?s=20

Link to the report is here: https://institute.global/policy/restoring-confidence-workhorse-covid-19-vaccines

A HUGE thank you to the brilliant @brianna_kmiller who co-wrote it and to @InstituteGC political team, who held the fort while we worked on this.

Thoughts and feedback welcome, and, deep breathe, END OF THREAD.