AP Paris-based enterprise reporter Lori Hinnant, and Burkina Faso reporter Sam Mednick took what sounded like a potential yawn of a story and instead turned it into a compelling and surprising read that revealed how a lack of refrigeration could leave 3 billion people around the world without access to a coronavirus vaccine. The story clearly laid out the concept of a “cold chain” – the need to keep vaccines cold throughout the process of delivery. The story’s conclusion: Impoverished people around the world, already among the hardest hit by the virus pandemic, are also likely to be the last to recover from it.
Workers move boxes inside Snowman Logistics, India's largest cold storage company, in Taloja on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, Oct. 17, 2020. The essential “cold chain” of vaccine storage may mean that many of the world’s most vulnerable to the coronavirus will be among the last receive the drug.
AP Photo / Rajanish Kakade
A boy sits in a chair and speaks to a nurse at a small clinic in Gampela village on the outskirts of Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, Oct. 10, 2020. The public health clinic responsible for serving approximately 11,000 people, did not have a working fridge for almost a year.
AP Photo / Sam Mednick
The story included input from around the world. Bogota, Colombia, regional news editor Christine Armario contributed a feed from Venezuela, and Aniruddha Ghosal reported from India, while Mednick’s reporting and photos were complemented by the work of Burkina Faso video journalist Ludivine Laniepce. And Stockholm-based video journalist David Keyton organized exclusive access to the world's largest humanitarian aid warehouse run by UNICEF.
Politico highlighted the story in its widely read Playbook newsletter, and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross also singled out AP’s coverage.