Pandemic Center

Seth Berkley, M.D.

Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center, Adjunct Professor of the Practice in the Department of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health
pandemic_center@brown.edu
Twitter

Biography

A serial entrepreneur and pioneer in global public health for more than 35 years, Dr. Berkley has been a champion of equitable access to vaccines and of innovation, and a driving force to improve the way the world prevents and responds to infectious disease. From 2011 to 2023 Berkley served as CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. During his tenure at Gavi, Berkley led a team that worked toward broadening global immunization access, resulting in more than half of the world’s children being vaccinated annually. His leadership was equally significant in co-founding and spearheading COVAX, an initiative that facilitated the distribution of over 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 146 nations.

As a senior advisor to the Pandemic Center, Dr. Berkley joins an interdisciplinary team that takes a holistic approach to pandemic preparedness. His global health leadership experience will bolster the Center’s efforts to build resilience to biological threats around the world and help mitigate their impact.

Recent News

truth out

US Turnaround on International Vaccines Comes Too Late for Hundreds of Thousands

In an extraordinary public display of administration infighting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee on June 2 that he was wresting back control of U.S. contributions to an international vaccine consortium — Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and his anti-vaxxer entourage. It was time, Rubio announced brusquely, to “re-engage” with Gavi, which was established in 2000 and takes the lead in vaccinating roughly 60 percent of the world’s children.

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Providence Journal

As World Cup nears, Brown experts say Ebola shouldn't be a concern

Thousands of tourists are set to descend upon Southern New England for the World Cup amid an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, a reality that has some Americans concerned.

But in a briefing from the Brown Pandemic Center, led by Craig Spencer, a Brown professor who treated Ebola patients in Africa in 2014, top scientists asserted the deadly virus should not be a major concern for the United States.

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Politico

RFK Jr. is holding up $600M in vaccines for poor countries

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to remake the U.S. vaccination schedule is on hold following a federal judge’s decision last month, but the health secretary is still using his power to affect which shots children in poor countries receive.

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Council on Foreign Relations

Vaccine Skepticism Has Risen in the U.S.—And in Many Other Countries

Vaccination is one of the most successful global health interventions in history, eradicating or eliminating some of the deadliest diseases through decades of coordinated effort. But that success is increasingly under pressure. Trust in vaccines has declined globally, fueled by the proliferation of misinformation and growing politicization of public health, making rising vaccine hesitancy one of the defining global health threats today.

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WePlanet

Bad Ideas | Are vaccines overrated?

In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with Dr Seth Berkley, infectious disease epidemiologist, former CEO of Gavi, and co-founder of COVAX, about what the world got right and wrong during COVID-19.

They discuss vaccine equity, pandemic preparedness, the politicisation of public health, and why the world remains dangerously vulnerable to future outbreaks. From the rapid development of mRNA vaccines to the rise of vaccine disinformation and the growing threat of H5N1 bird flu, this conversation is a sobering reminder that pandemics do not end just because societies stop wanting to talk about them.
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