The Nationwide Basis for Infectious Illnesses is honoring three people for his or her contributions in equitable vaccine entry, COVID-19 vaccine policymaking, and HIV analysis developments.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways
- Seth F. Berkley, MD, will obtain NFID’s 2024 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award for his contributions to international well being and equitable entry to vaccines, notably by way of his management at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the co-creation of COVAX, which facilitated the distribution of practically 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses globally.
- Grace Lee, MD, MPH, is awarded the 2024 John P. Utz Management Award for her management as chair of the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, taking part in a vital function in vaccine decision-making and coverage steering.
- Ighovwerha (Igho) Ofotokun, MD, MSc, can be honored with the 2024 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement, recognizing his impactful analysis on HIV, significantly specializing in the long-term impacts of the virus and his efforts to handle systemic inequities in analysis and promote ladies’s well being.
The Nationwide Basis for Infectious Illnesses (NFID) has introduced the 2024 recipients of the NFID awards honoring people who’ve made important and lasting contributions to public well being by way of management, scientific achievement, philanthropy, and coverage work in infectious ailments.
The awards can be offered on the 2024 NFID Awards Gala in Washington, DC in September 2024.
Champion of Equitable Entry to Vaccines
Seth F. Berkley, MD, of the Pandemic Heart of Brown College, will obtain the 2024 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award in recognition of his work as an entrepreneur, a pioneer in international well being, and a champion of equitable entry to vaccines.
A doctor and infectious illness epidemiologist, Berkley led Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for 12 years, elevating $33.3 billion and growing protection of routine immunization in lower-income international locations. Gavi has vaccinated greater than 1 billion youngsters and launched greater than 600 new vaccines, decreasing vaccine-preventable baby deaths by 70%, and stopping greater than 19.9 million deaths.
Whereas at Gavi, he co-created COVAX, a world multilateral answer that labored with companions and leaders of 193 economies to safe, ship, and assist ship practically 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 146 economies. He beforehand based the Worldwide AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to develop an AIDS vaccine for growing international locations.
“Seth Berkley restlessly takes on and delivers on huge challenges,” says Bruce G. Gellin, MD, MPH, of The Rockefeller Basis in nominating Berkley. “Turning vaccines into vaccinations among the many most weak and making certain that routine immunizations have been certainly routine, he additionally performed a pivotal function in altering the best way the world prevents and responds to international well being crises and epidemics.”
Chief Who Guided COVID-19 Vaccine Policymaking
Grace Lee, MD, MPH, of Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being and Stanford College College of Medication, will obtain the 2024 John P. Utz Management Award in recognition of her excellent management as chair of the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Grace Lee served throughout the turbulent occasions of COVID-19, marked by conferences, which have been frequent, quite a few, and at occasions difficult,” says NFID president Patricia (Patsy) A. Stinchfield, RN, MS, CPNP, in nominating Lee. “She has been center-stage on troublesome vaccine selections and led conversations with an inclusive, affected person, but decisive, tone. She was the proper individual for the occasions, and we’re all indebted to her.”
Lee oversees the Heart for Pediatric and Maternal Worth at Stanford Kids’s, which seeks to enhance high quality, security, affected person expertise, and well being fairness throughout the group. She has served on Institute of Medication committees that reviewed priorities within the Nationwide Vaccine Plan and evaluated moral and scientific points in finding out the security of authorised medicine.
She has additionally participated on the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medication committee on vaccine analysis and growth for pandemic and seasonal influenza and is a member of the Nationwide Academy of Medication. Lee continues to handle and deal with younger sufferers with infectious ailments.
Clinician-Scientist Combating Lengthy-Time period Impacts of HIV
Ighovwerha (Igho) Ofotokun, MD, MSc, of Emory College College of Medication, will obtain the 2024 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement in recognition of an exceptionally productive profession dedicated to addressing systemic inequities in analysis, selling ladies’s well being, nurturing a world analysis program focusing on the prevention and therapy of illness, and mentoring the following era of HIV medical and translational researchers.
An internationally famend clinician-scientist, Ofotokun has lengthy studied the menace that age-related comorbidities pose to wholesome getting old in individuals residing with HIV, together with the pathogenesis of HIV-induced end-organ injury.
Findings from his analysis have led to the revision of HIV standard-of-care therapy tips within the US and internationally, to World Well being Group coverage modifications that now prioritize antiretroviral regimens which are much less dangerous for girls. He has additionally expanded the visibility and illustration of girls and minorities in biomedical analysis and leveraged his experience and affect to advertise analysis schooling and coaching within the US and several other different international locations together with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Georgia, and Vietnam.
“He’s an excellent educational chief and researcher, a really distinctive mentor, a revered clinician, and a worthwhile addition to an more and more various, equitable, and inclusive workforce in infectious ailments,” says Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, of Vanderbilt College College of Medication, in nominating Ofotokun.
