Boston, Mass. – April 7, 2022 – The Global Mass Vaccination Site Collaborative, a joint initiative led by Ariadne Labs and the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Boost Community, today announced an expanded effort to support mass vaccination sites in low- and middle-income countries. The work is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The tenacity of the global COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for innovative solutions to getting as much of the world’s population vaccinated as quickly and safely as possible. To date, rates of vaccination in most low- and middle-income countries have lagged behind rates in higher income countries. The Collaborative has launched an open access website to provide a one-stop resource for curated tools, programming, and support for establishing and maintaining mass vaccination sites and other vaccination efforts. Resources include vaccination site playbooks and access to peer support through a large community of vaccine site operators within the Boost Community.
The Collaborative hosts biweekly meetings for immunization professionals worldwide to discuss operational aspects of mass vaccination sites, share best practices across countries and communities, and support countries just beginning their mass vaccination work.
“Through this collaboration we will support a global community to share insights, learnings, and practices with the aim of increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates in low- and middle-income countries,” said Collaborative Principal Investigator Eric Goralnick, MD, MS, Medical Director, Access and Network Development, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Ariadne Labs Associate Faculty. “Our community empowers policy makers and front-line operators to improve the availability, administration, accessibility, and efficiency of vaccines by utilizing an essential tool to curb this pandemic: mass vaccination sites.”
“Ending the COVID-19 pandemic will require equitable access to vaccines in every country around the world,” said Jennifer Fluder Siler, Director of Global Community Engagement for Sabin’s Boost Community. “Mass vaccination efforts in low- and middle-income countries face particular logistical, economic, and social challenges, and this collaboration will help us leverage our community’s collective learnings to support efforts around the globe.”
The Global Mass Vaccination Site Collaborative was initially launched by Ariadne Labs in April 2021 as a way for stakeholders directing vaccination campaigns around the world to come together and learn from each other’s efforts. In November 2021, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ariadne Labs joined forces with the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Boost Community to extend the reach of the collaborative to more low- and middle-income countries.
To date, the Collaborative has hosted more than 30 webinars, collectively attended by nearly 1,000 participants. Close to 20 organizations and agencies have presented on vaccination efforts throughout the United States, and in Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, India, and Côte d’Ivoire.
“By facilitating the exchange of knowledge and best practices, the Global Mass Vaccination Site Collaborative is strengthening worldwide efforts to close gaps that interfere with equitable access to vaccination,” said Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Executive Director of Ariadne Labs. “By expanding its work to focus on countries that have had limited access to COVID-19 vaccines, the Collaborative aims to play an important role in ensuring equitable access to care for every patient, everywhere.”
Ariadne Labs is a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With a mission to save lives and reduce suffering, our vision is that health systems equitably deliver the best possible care for every patient, everywhere, every time. We use human centered design, health systems implementation science, public health expertise, and frontline clinical care experience to design, test, and spread scalable systems-level solutions to some of health care’s biggest problems. From developing checklists and conversation guides to fostering international collaborations and establishing global standards of measurement, our work has been accessed in more than 165 countries, touching hundreds of millions of lives.
The Boost community, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is a global network of more than 2,100 immunization professionals from 135 countries, dedicated to support immunization professionals as they navigate complex challenges. Developed in close, ongoing collaboration with immunization program staff, organizations and experts, Boost’s online and offline opportunities connect immunization professionals to connect with peers and experts, learn skills that build capacity and advance careers, and equips professionals to lead immunization programs. Boost professional development opportunities include workshops, webinars and expert- and peer-led discussions. These offerings are designed to deliver meaningful leadership training and support networks that go beyond skills-based learning to create resilient, resourceful immunization professionals around the world.
Media Contacts:
Ariadne Labs: Brigid Tsai btsai@ariadnelabs.org
Sabin Vaccine Institute: Justin Gero press@sabin.org
Photo provided by Swasti Health Catalyst