In This Episode
This is part one of two in Neal’s conversation with global health specialist, Dr. Ray Yip. He has a lot of encouraging news about the vaccine process for Covid-19.
He explains to us how this vaccine was developed so quickly and the benefit of taxpayers subsidizing the process, as well as getting into detail about vaccine trial phases.
Dr. Yip also discusses the credentials of the CDC, and the damage caused to it by corruption within the Trump administration.
Topics Discussed
- The corruption in the Trump administration reflecting poorly on the CDC
- CDC is better educated and equipped the WHO
- Vax apprehension
- The normal speed of vax development
- How Covid vax was developed so quickly
- Parallel steps to expedite vax development
- Taxpayers funding this development process
- Trial phases in detail
All About Ray Yip
Dr. Ray Yip is a global health specialist with program development and management experience in Nutrition, Maternal & Child Health, Immunization, Emergency Response, Infectious Disease Control and HIV/AIDS with 25 years of overseas experience including 20 years in China.
Currently, Dr. Yip serves as a Special Advisor to Gates Venture on China Partnership Development. Additionally, he also provides strategic advice for organizations on business or partnership development in China and he also supports Chinese health and technology enterprises who want to invest in Africa to improve access to medical service.
Previously, Dr. Yip served as the founding Director of the China Program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2007 to 2015. The advocacy-focused program of the Gates Foundation assisted the government in adopting a test-and-treat strategy for HIV prevention, and initiated a strong response for smoking prevention. He also transformed the China Program strategy from responding to the public health issues of China to focusing on leveraging China’s experience and capacity to support the development of Africa, known as “China for Africa”.
From 1998 to 2007, Dr. Yip first served as the Chief of Health and Nutrition for UNICEF in China and later as the Country Director of CDC and the Global Aids Program in China. During this period, he facilitated the mainstreaming of hepatitis B vaccine into the Expanded Immunization Program (EPI), the development of Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) which played an important role in the 2003 SARS response, the adoption of new Safe Motherhood strategy which focused on increasing hospital-based delivery which resulted in significant reduction of maternal mortality, and supported the startup of National PMTCT and HIV treatment program.
Dr. Yip served as the Chief of Service Delivery of UNICEF in Indonesia from 1996 to 1998, and was based at the CDC in Atlanta from 1984 to 1996 with last position as the Chief of Maternal and Child Health at the Division of Nutrition with focus on research work on micronutrient malnutrition and he also took part in multiple missions for refugee emergencies and disasters in the Middle East and Africa.
He was on the Pediatric faculty of University of California-San Francisco prior to joining the CDC and has served as an adjunct professor at the Friedman School and Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and School of Public Health at Tsinghua University.
Dr. Yip is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School and School of Public Health and certified as a pediatric hematologist-oncologist.
