The Jab from The Economist

By The Economist

News & Politics Science & Medicine

What's The Jab from The Economist about?

The Economist unlocks the science, data and politics behind the most ambitious inoculation programme the world has ever seen.
Alok Jha, The Economist’s science correspondent, hosts with Natasha Loder, our health-policy editor. Each week our reporters and data journalists join them in conversation, along with scientists around the world. They inject the perfect dose of insight and analysis into the global effort to escape the pandemic. 

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LAST EPISODE

The Jab: How will the pande...

06.28.2021

Vaccines are helping some countries return to a semblance of normalcy, while much of the world remains vulnerable to covid-19. We explore what’s next for the pandemic at this critical juncture. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, ...

The Jab from The Economist episodes:

06.28.2021 The Jab: How will the pandemic end? Vaccines are helping some countries return to a semblance of normalcy, while much of the world remains vulnerable to covid-19. We explore what’s next for the pandemic at this critical juncture. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, ...
06.21.2021 The Jab: How will vaccine technology improve? The first covid-19 vaccines came from rapid innovation. They have already saved millions of lives. What new technologies are in the pipeline? Robin Shattock’s team at Imperial College London is developing a self-amplifying RNA vaccine. Moz Siddiqui of Gavi, the ...
06.14.2021 The Jab: Why was Latin America hit so hard? Why has Latin America been the region hardest hit by the pandemic? Carlos Castillo-Salgado of Johns Hopkins University blames the informal economy and the example set by Donald Trump. Tulane University’s Valerie Paz-Soldán explains why Peru has been affected the ...
06.07.2021 The Jab: Will vaccinations restart travel? Vaccinations have helped ease national lockdowns, but restrictions on international travel remain severe. When and how might they be lifted? Willie Walsh of the International Air Transport Association tells us airlines are a soft target for government restrictions. Aerosol physicist ...
05.31.2021 The Jab: What’s the best vaccination strategy? The Jab: What’s the best vaccination strategy? Getting vaccine regimens right is a matter of life and death. We investigate new research that could shape how jabs are rolled out. The Oxford Vaccine Group’s Matthew Snape says mixing vaccines could ...
05.24.2021 The Jab: Can Asia’s covid havens re-open? A “zero-covid” strategy has kept cases to a minimum in a handful of Asia-Pacific countries. How can they use vaccines to end their isolation? Professor Gabriel Leung of the University of Hong Kong says “zero-covid” countries have become victims of ...
05.17.2021 The Jab: How many have really died? A new model from The Economist indicates that Covid-19 has claimed millions more lives than official numbers suggest. Can enough vaccine supplies reach poorer countries to prevent millions more deaths? Data journalist Sondre Solstad reveals the untold story of the ...
05.10.2021 The Jab: Why can’t more be made? Thousands are dying each day amid vaccine shortages. Would a patent waiver save lives? Jayati Ghosh of the University of Massachusetts Amherst says liberating IP is an urgent moral issue. Richard Hatchett, CEO at CEPI, disagrees. Alok Jha and Natasha ...
05.03.2021 The Jab: Might vaccine diplomacy misfire? Vaccines have become a tool of global influence. China and Russia have sent millions of doses abroad, but the West has lagged in vaccine diplomacy. What are the risks and rewards? Agathe Demarais of The Economist Intelligence Unit, who wrote ...
04.26.2021 The Jab: What lessons have been learned? More than a billion vaccines have been administered. But the contrast between Israel, largely free of covid-19, and India, struggling with a catastrophic second wave, is stark. What explains the discrepancy? Devi Sridhar, Founding Director of the Global Health Governance ...
04.19.2021 The Jab: Can Europe turn the corner? The continent is suffering a third wave of covid-19 after the European Commission’s vaccine roll out stalled. French President Emmanuelle Macron has said Europe “lacked ambition” in its vaccine efforts. How can European countries catch up? Alok Jha and Natasha ...
04.12.2021 The Jab: How to persuade the sceptics? All adults in America are now eligible for a covid-19 vaccine. Around 30% of those polled in the country, however, are hesitant to take the jab. A shortage of vaccines will soon become a shortage of arms. What is the ...
04.05.2021 The Jab: Can distribution be fair? More than a billion doses of covid-19 vaccine have been made. Now comes the hard part: ensuring every country in the world has access to them. Can distribution be made more equitable? Alok Jha and Natasha Loder are joined by ...
03.29.2021 The Jab: How will science benefit? The concerted and rapid efforts to counter covid-19 have turbo-charged scientific progress. How can this new knowledge be applied to treat future threats to human health? Gregg Glenn, head of research and development at Novavax on why that vaccine is ...
03.22.2021 The Jab: Will America do better than Europe? The EU was slow to roll out covid-19 vaccines, then destroyed confidence in the Astrazeneca vaccine and is now embroiled in a row over supplies. Will America avoid Europe's pitfalls? Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, explains ...
03.15.2021 The Jab: How will behaviour change? The world has stumbled through the pandemic by nationalising risk. In heavily infected countries citizens have been ordered to stay home for weeks at a time. As covid-19 vaccination programmes spread, governments must gradually restore choice to the individual. How? ...
03.08.2021 The Jab: Trial and error? Large scale covid-19 vaccine trials have taken place at exceptional speed with unprecedented scrutiny. How do they work? And why are the results so politically charged? We speak to Andrew Catchpole, lead scientist on the first trial to infect volunteers ...
03.01.2021 The Jab: Will there be enough vaccines? It is one thing to design and test covid-19 vaccines. It is another to make them at sufficient scale to generate the billions of doses needed to vaccinate the world’s population. How are the vaccines produced, why is production so ...
02.22.2021 The Jab: Are the vaccines effective enough? Three vaccines have been approved by stringent regulators. Ten are being used in one or more countries. How do they work and are they effective enough against new variants of the coronavirus? Sarah Gilbert, inventor of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine, tells ...
02.15.2021 The Jab: How well will vaccines work? The race between infections and injections is in its most crucial phase. What life is like on the other side of the pandemic depends on three things: how well vaccines work, whether there are enough and how many people take ...
02.08.2021 The Jab: Trailer In this new weekly podcast series, The Economist unlocks the science, data and politics behind the most ambitious inoculation programme the world has ever seen. Alok Jha, The Economist’s science correspondent, hosts with Natasha Loder, our health policy editor. Each ...