From school closures to devastated industries and millions of jobs lost, the global coronavirus pandemic has disrupted people’s lives around the world. It has also highlighted long-standing gaps in healthcare access and economic responses. And it has threatened to widen these inequalities and undermine progress on global poverty and clean energy. The answer is a concerted effort by all players – scientists, businesses, government and philanthropies – to get lifesaving tests, treatments and vaccines from the lab to the front lines as quickly as possible.

A global coalition of public and private partners – including Wellcome – is working to do just that, accelerating the availability of the tools needed to defeat the virus. The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator brings together health organisations, scientists, businesses, NGOs, governments and philanthropies to bring lifesaving research faster from the laboratory to the front line.

For more information visit our ACT Accelerator page.

Two years after the outbreak began, Americans continue to give mixed marks to their elected officials’ handling of the pandemic. But they remain much more likely to praise their local hospitals for their work during the crisis. And a slim majority still say the CDC did an excellent or good job responding to the pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic has brought new attention to long-standing societal disparities, like the differences between lower- and higher-income Americans in how they use technology. And it has also shown how a lack of reliable data can hinder a well-intentioned response to a public health emergency.