They did it.
At the end of an afternoon of anxious anticipation in Berlin, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance CEO Seth Berkley announced that his organization had reached its fundraising target of $7.5 billion.
To his elation — and, perhaps somewhere in there, to his relief — he revealed that they had exceeded this goal by $39 million, news that brought the room to its feet. The news conference afterward also had an unmistakably triumphant air, and understandably so, for this success was by no means a sure thing.