More than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic halted life as we knew it, the world is now in a very different place. There are now eight vaccine candidates approved for full use and more than 1 billion doses administered worldwide — the international community is on its way to ending the pandemic.

But the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine is not the final answer to the problem. In order to cease transmission of the virus, enough of the global population needs to be vaccinated to reach a level of herd immunity.

One of the main barriers to achieving this level of immunity is the inequitable access to vaccine doses, especially when there is still a limited supply. A stark gap has already formed between the haves and the have-nots: North America currently boasts a vaccination rate 35 times higher than that of Africa.

Emanuele Capobianco, director of health and care at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), spoke with Global Citizen about the importance of achieving a global target for herd immunity and how his organization has been helping to work toward that goal.

Read the full article about inequity and herd immunity by Kristine Liao at Global Citizen.