On Wednesday, May 19th at 9AM (Washington D.C.), 2PM (London), 4PM (Nairobi), 6:30PM (New Delhi), Internews will be launching Let’s Talk Vaccines, an e-learning course for journalists. It’s a comprehensive online course for self-study through the various facets of the vaccine story: the science, equitable access, the logistics of rollout and the concerns that get in the way of confidence in vaccines. The course is an interactive online experience which shows journalists how to be self-reliant in keeping up with the fast-moving science and social dimensions of the vaccine story. And, it’s also a repository of knowledge and story ideas.

The Internews Let’s Talk Vaccines course debuts at a time when accurate, balanced reporting on vaccines is vital as countries around the world forge ahead with vaccine roll-out programs. A global vaccine apartheid is unfolding with surplus vaccines in some parts of the world and a slow trickle of vaccination in many other parts. There are concerns about variants and a deluge of news to digest.

The launch event we will be moderated by Ida Jooste, Internews Global Health Media Advisor, and will feature course authors as well as special guest, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health epidemiologist and director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). Karim and Anthony Fauci, director of the (US) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were jointly awarded the John Maddox Prize 2020 in recognition of their exemplary work as government advisors on health and communicating the complex and changing science of COVID-19 to the public and policymakers, in the midst of international uncertainty and anxiety.