Eric LeCompte featured in Crux regarding the increased need for attention and work on global vaccine distribution following Biden's COVID-19 summit. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

After Biden’s COVID-19 summit, ‘more work needs to be done’

By John Lavenburg

To date there have been more than six billion COVID-19 doses administered worldwide. However, more than 70 percent of all vaccine doses have been administered in 10 countries. This disparity has led Catholic leaders worldwide – including Pope Francis and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – to call for vaccine equity.

The commitments made at the summit aim to get 40 percent of the population in developing populations vaccinated by the end of the year, what LeCompte considers a “very, very hard commitment” to meet given the challenges that exist.

“The more realistic commitment is to have 70 percent of the world’s developing population vaccinated by mid-year next year, but that’s still a ways out and as important as the progress is, I’m still worried whether or not that’s going to be fast enough,” LeCompte said.

Chief among the challenges is the logistics of getting COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing nations and subsequently getting them in people’s arms. LeCompte notes that vaccine donations and production aren’t enough “if we don’t have the actual infrastructure in developing countries to deal with these issues.”

“There’s a lot more work that needs to be done, a lot more money that needs to be raised to be able to support the ability to get shots in the arms, as well as deal with all of these other vital healthcare infrastructure needs,” LeCompte said.