When Gambia received its first shipment of 36,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in March through the global initiative COVAX, the mood at the West African country’s Health Ministry was upbeat. “We gave people their first doses, and told them the date to come back for the second,” says Mustapha Bittaye, the ministry’s director of health services. That initial shipment and the ability to plan for vaccination follow-through nurtured a sense that the world was making good on an early-pandemic commitment. In a rush of both altruism and self-interest, wealthy countries and international institutions had created COVAX in April 2020, pledging to ensure global access to coronavirus vaccines – including in the world’s poorest countries. To read the full story.