PRESS RELEASE: Collateral Global launches a first-of-its-kind crowdfunding campaign
13 September 2021
COLLATERAL GLOBAL LAUNCHES A FIRST OF ITS KIND CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
Funds will be used for a research programme into the global response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
London – Collateral Global, a newly formed UK-based charity, has assembled a multi-disciplinary, global team of experts whose mission is to research and understand the wider impacts of the global response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Their findings will be published at www.collateralglobal.org. They have already completed meta-analyses on interruptions to childhood vaccinations and cancer care.
Today, Collateral Global launched a first-of-its-kind, public crowdfunding campaign to finance their research.
Collateral Global is already funded entirely by public and charitable sector donations, conferring independence which the organisation believes is vital to conducting high-quality, unbiased research. The pioneering research programme will require a full-time commitment from a highly qualified team, whose work will be made possible through Collateral Global’s crowdfunding efforts.
Key questions to be addressed by the research programme will include:
- Were the assumptions behind the response to the pandemic correct?
- Was the response proportionate?
- How effective have the responses been in achieving their objectives?
- What have the costs and knock-on effects been across the world?
The funds raised from this campaign will be spent directly on research by academics and professionals from across the world.
Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University and advisor to Collateral Global said: ‘Projects like Collateral Global will not receive funding from traditional research councils, which are looking to make discoveries. Collateral Global is seeking to create understanding, collate evidence and understand the wider impacts of the restrictions.’
Alex Caccia, Collateral Global CEO, who anticipates the research programme will take several years, commented: “Everyone across the world has been impacted by the pandemic, and by the global response; now is the time to analyse and understand so that we can make sense of what has happened and ensure that future responses are informed by this understanding.”
Prof Toby Green, Professor of Precolonial and Lusophone African History at King’s College, London, added:
‘It’s hard to overestimate the importance of properly resourcing an independent, multi-disciplinary and multi-continental research programme into the “collateral costs” of the pandemic response. We need to hear voices that have not been heard so far so that people can understand what the impacts have been and will be for people around the world whose lives have been upended over the past 18 months’.
The first research paper published on the charity’s website covered the impact of mandated non-pharmaceutical interventions (MNPIs), or lockdown measures, on cancer treatment. The second study examined the impact of MNPIs on child vaccination programmes for diseases such as measles and polio. Future studies will cover Diabetes, CVA’s, Children’s mental health, Elderly care, and Environmental impacts.
The charity’s website www.collateralglobal.org is the main forum for the team to communicate their research findings, as well as offer related content including editorials, scientific explainers and personal stories of lockdown experiences. The Collateral Global crowdfunding page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/collateralglobal.
About Collateral Global
Collateral Global is a UK registered Charity (No. 1195125) dedicated to researching, understanding, and communicating the effectiveness and collateral impacts of the Mandated Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (MNPIs) taken by governments worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collateral Global believes that these questions need to be addressed by an independent organisation, and the best way to answer these questions independently is for the research to be funded by the public and the charitable sector, which is how we have been funded so far.
We have assembled a team of experts from a wide range of disciplines, and from across the world. Utilizing the enduring principles of scientific inquiry, we aim to provide scholarship and research, building an evidence-based understanding of mitigation measures that is both accessible and actionable.
To read our published findings or learn more about the Collateral Global team and the crowdfunding campaign, please visit collateralglobal.org
Professor Carl Heneghan – Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine & Director of Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford
Professor Toby Green – Professor of African History at King’s College, London.
Alex Caccia – CEO, Animal Dynamics Ltd. & Collateral Global