A member of the Founders Advisory Board of the Journal of Health and Human Experience, Pamela Berkowsky is a former Pentagon official and the current president of Blue Sapphire Strategies, a public affairs and business advisory consulting firm. As chief of staff to the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, she oversaw the development and implementation of the territory’s healthcare reform policy. Pamela Berkowsky maintains a keen interest in global public health, biodefense, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics for infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and ebola. Ebola is a highly infectious virus which causes a hemorrhagic illness; its average fatality rate is 50%. Ervebo, developed by Merck, is the first human vaccine for Ebola to receive approval in both the European Union and the United States. The EU approved the vaccine in November 2019 following a recommendation by the European Medicines Agency. In the United States, the vaccine received FDA approval just a month later in December 2019. The vaccine has proven effective in protecting adults over the age of 18 from the Ebola virus. The World Health Organization prequalified the vaccine and fast-tracked efforts to improve access in regions most at risk of an outbreak. A vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, which requires two injections compared to Ervebo’s single dose, has passed clinical trials and has recently been administered in Africa. Whereas Ervebo is being used in a ring vaccination campaign geared toward frontline healthcare workers and close contacts of the infected, the J&J vaccine is targeted towards at-risk populations to prevent the spread of the virus outside of outbreak zones where the disease is not yet being actively transmitted.
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AuthorA resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2002, Pamela B. Berkowsky took her most recent governmental management role in 2007, becoming Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. John de Jongh Jr. Thriving in this position, in which she managed daily Government House and Cabinet operations and policy development and implementation, she was promoted to Chief of Staff in 2011. Archives
September 2020
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