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Begin New Search Topic Global Health Political Geography Asia

1. South Korea as a Global Vaccine Hub

Author:
Thomas Byrne, Claire Callahan, Irene Kyoung, and Salome Da Silva Duarte Lepez
Publication Date:
10-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
South Korea aspires to achieve the status of a global vaccine hub as a national strategic policy priority. South Korea’s biomanufacturing industry has ramped up the development and production of therapeutic treatments and vaccines to meet the public health demands of the pandemic. The government has responded by promoting public-private partnerships to expand vaccine production capacity to meet current and future needs domestically and abroad in LMICs. To bolster this strategy, the government has entered into partnerships with international organizations, namely the WHO, ADB, and IVI, by establishing training hub programs for a global biomanufacturing workforce in 2022. This paper examines South Korea’s mechanisms and strategy towards becoming a vaccine hub, the origins of which predate the Covid-19 pandemic but were again spurred by vaccine nationalism and challenges to access early in the pandemic.
Topic:
Development, Manufacturing, Vaccine, COVID-19, and Global Health
Political Geography:
Asia and South Korea

2. Recommendations to Congress Concerning the Investigation into SARS-CoV-2's Origin

Author:
Thomas DiNanno
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hudson Institute
Abstract:
On May 26, 2021, President Biden announced that he had tasked the US Intelligence Community (IC) with providing a definitive review of SARS-CoV-2’s origins within 90 days, and that deadline is fast approaching. On the same day, CNN reported that the Biden administration had shut down another investigation into possible Chinese government dual-use biological programs being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and its associated facilities. This investigation, which was being conducted by the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance (AVC), had been initiated by Secretary Pompeo’s State Department in 2019, and its purpose was to answer the following questions: What role, if any, did the Chinese government’s virus research program play in its biological weapons program? Under the Biological Weapons Convention, any use and development of capabilities with potential dual uses (civilian and military) must be for peaceful purposes. Did this virus research program and the spread of SARS-CoV-2 represent a further Chinese violation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)? Following the completion of the 90-day review, Congress should, over the short term, request that the AVC Bureau continue the investigation into SARS-CoV-2’s origin that President Biden interrupted and re-assigned to the Intelligence Community. In contrast to the US IC, the Bureau’s sole function is to assess other nations’ compliance with their international arms control obligations and, moreover, has the legal mandate to do so. Additionally, this memo contains recommendations concerning the US government’s compliance-and-verification function over the long term that would support policymakers and allow it to effectively fulfill its Congressional mandate.
Topic:
Health Care Policy, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Global Health
Political Geography:
China and Asia