Intersection: “We are only safe if everyone’s safe”

DELIVERING ON DIVERSITY, GENDER EQUALITY, AND INCLUSION

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In this issue, we look at how the world is doing when it comes to vaccine equity and reflect on the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

THE VIEW

“The first thing I would like to see is COVID-19-vaccine doses freed up for the poorest countries. We are just not there yet concerning this critical issue of equity.”
– Dr. Seth Berkley

Dr. Seth Berkley is the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, whose mission is to secure vaccines for developing countries. That’s a major challenge, especially now: to date, about 4 billion COVID-19-vaccine doses have been administered globally—but only 1 percent of the people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, compared with half of the people in high-income countries. (At the going rate, it could take until 2023 or later for the world’s 92 poorest countries to reach a vaccination rate of 60 percent.) Last year, Gavi helped launch COVAX, the biggest global effort in history to get vaccines to developing nations; 193 countries and territories are now part of the initiative. Through COVAX, Gavi has secured two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the second half of 2021, with the goal of having every healthcare worker in the world immunized. Dr. Berkley says that people are finally beginning to understand the situation: “We are only safe if everyone’s safe.”

THE TAKEAWAY

This week marks the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA was signed into law on July 26, 1990, making the United States the first country to pass a comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities. It was not without a fight; earlier that year, in what came to be known as the “Capitol Crawl,” disability rights activists crawled up the steps of the Capitol building to call attention to the importance of accessibility—and of the legislation then stuck in Congress.

The country has come a long way since that moment, but there is still plenty of work to do. Activist Alice Wong put it plainly in an interview with the New York Times: “We have elevators, ramps, and closed captioning. But the ADA is not a magic wand.” Wong says the law is important, but “real culture change takes much longer to achieve”—and “anyone can create this change by speaking up in everyday situations.” One piece of Wong’s guidance to keep in mind as company events pick up again: ask for the venue to be accessible, whether or not you need accommodations.

— Edited by Gwyn Herbein, an assistant managing editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office

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