For our “Coffee with the Expert” section, as moderators of several discussions at the World Vaccine Congress, taking place from March 30 to April 2 in Washington, D.C., Vaccines Beat had the opportunity to speak with leading experts ahead of the event on the topic: “Vaccine Public–Private Partnerships for Pandemic Readiness & Biosecurity.” During the conversation, panelists opened a stimulating dialogue that will expand into a full panel session on April 1, focusing on the urgent need to establish pre-arranged agreements among key stakeholders before another global crisis emerges. The panel: Holger Kissel, Ph.D., serves as Senior Vice President Scientific Relations & Liaison at BioNTech. Nikki Romanik, MD, is the co-founder of BioRadar Public Benefit Company, an AI-powered biosurveillance and early-warning platform designed to detect emerging biological threats before they escalate into global crises. Julie Barnes-Weise is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance Accelerator (GHIAA). Shelly Malhotra is the Vice President of Global Access and External Affairs at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Jack Moss currently serves as Deputy Commercial Director for Major Programmes at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), where he leads commercial strategy and delivery for large-scale public health initiatives.
In the Editor’s Corner section, we address how climate change alters environmental conditions—such as temperature, precipitation, ecosystem stability, and extreme weather—which in turn affects disease ecology. These changes expand pathogen reservoirs, shift the geographic range of vectors and animal hosts, and increase opportunities for zoonotic spillover. At the same time, factors like air pollution, heat, malnutrition, and environmental stress can weaken host immunity. Together, these processes facilitate the emergence of infectious diseases, promote transmission to human populations, and increase the likelihood and scale of outbreaks.
In our Best Practice section, we revisit the growing evidence supporting single-dose HPV vaccination. Data from major clinical studies—including the Costa Rica Vaccine Trial (CVT), the KEN SHE randomized trials evaluating both bivalent and nonavalent vaccines, the IARC India quadrivalent HPV trial, and the DoRIS dose-reduction immunobridging study—have consistently shown that a single dose of HPV vaccine can provide up to 98% protection against HPV types responsible for cervical cancer. Together, these findings have provided strong scientific support for the WHO recommendation endorsing a single-dose HPV vaccination schedule, a strategy with particular relevance for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where simplified schedules can facilitate broader coverage and accelerate progress toward cervical cancer elimination.
Finally, in our Guest Contributor section, Dr. Mahmud Sheku, MPH, MS, PhD, together with Drs. Van Meter Connor, Robert A. Bednarczyk, PhD, Katherine Seib, MSPH, Emilia Grill, MPH, and Benjamin A. Lopman, PhD, from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, present a summary of a novel tool called “VaxImpact: An Interactive Web App Quantifying the Health and Economic Consequences of Declining Childhood Vaccination Across U.S. States.”
As always, this issue features carefully curated and up-to-date information on the ‘Latest Scientific Publications’ along with the most recent and important ‘News and Alerts’.
We hope you find this March issue both informative and engaging, and we look forward to continuing this shared commitment to advancing global health and building a healthier planet.
