From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Lessons Learned from Efforts to Meet Global Vaccination
Goal

Description: 

Latesha Love-Grayer discusses GAO's report "COVID-19: USAID Plans to
Share Lessons Learned from Efforts to Meet Global Vaccination Goal".

Millions of people around the world have died from COVID-19. The U.S.
government has pledged to help reach a global goal of vaccinating 70% of
the world's population against the virus.

As of July 2023, the U.S. Agency for International Development has
helped 125 countries vaccinate their populations against COVID-19. But
issues such as vaccine hesitancy and difficulty accessing remote
populations have impacted its work. As a result, almost two-thirds of
the assisted countries had vaccination rates at or below 50% of the
population.

USAID plans to share lessons learned from these issues to help its
global partners prepare for future pandemics. 

Related GAO Works: GAO-23-105579.  COVID-19: USAID Plans to Share
Lessons Learned from Efforts to Meet Global Vaccination Goal

Released: September 2023

[ GAO's Latesha Love-Grayer, Director, International Affairs and Trade,
speaking ]

[ Latesha Love-Grayer: 

At the height of the pandemic, the U.S. pledged to help the global
community achieve a vaccination rate of 70%. The U.S. made this
commitment because it understood the need to help countries fight the
pandemic who had less resources than its own. The U.S. Agency for
International Development, known as USAID, led U.S. efforts to help
other countries achieve vaccination goals.

They did so by helping those countries both receive and distribute
vaccinations. USAID collaborated with other U.S. federal agencies, other
countries, governments and multilateral organizations to support these
efforts. As of July 20, 23, most of these countries had a vaccination
rate of less than 50%. USAID faced evolving challenges during the
pandemic. Initially, it faced challenges with the supply of the vaccine,
including shortages in the freezers that are used to store and transport
the vaccines.

Later, it experienced challenges helping countries to generate demand
for the vaccine. And this was because of misinformation, COVID fatigue
and overall vaccine hesitancy. USAID plans to share the lessons that it
has learned from these efforts, including the challenges that it faced.]

For more information, visit GAO.gov.

 [ End ]

For more info, check out our report GAO-23-105579 at: GAO.gov