Wednesday, January 20, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution: Competition or Cooperation

It was apparent early on in the pandemic that the world was completely unprepared for SARS-CoV-2. Maybe if we had been better prepared -- e.g. global strategic planning for pandemic response, developing more viral therapeutics -- acquiring vaccines wouldn’t have turned into the feeding frenzy between wealthy nations that it has become. A new global coalition, COVAX, is one arm of a broader effort to provide COVID vaccines, diagnostics, and treatment in an equitable manner to all countries. This aim is noble, but is it really the case that every country needs equal access to vaccines? At first glance it seems just to take an egalitarian approach to resource distribution. Allowing rich countries to stockpile resources desperately needed in other places (take the case of vaccines wherein wealthy nations pre-purchased more than 80% of vaccines that were to be made in 2021 (NPR Up First Podcast)) defies the most intuitive sense of justice that we have. But I would argue that this approach, at least at its most foundational level, might do more harm than good. If we were to distribute vaccines to countries in proportion to their population so that each received a relatively equal share, we would be ignoring the reality that the pandemic situation in some nations is worse off and this puts the entire world at risk. For example, Brazil’s leader, Bolsonaro, talked down vaccines and was long delayed in making efforts to acquire them for his citizens. Currently, Brazil’s death toll is over two hundred thousand, second only to the United States. The virus is spreading rapidly there, and what’s more, there is evidence of at least two different, more communicable, strains of the virus spreading in Brazil. Other countries that are in more stable situations might consider sending their vaccines to a country in a situation like Brazil. This argument hinges on one particular concern: Rampant viral transmission allows for exponential viral replication. Replication nearly always involved mutation. Mutation may change the virus in ways so it is no longer similar to a vaccine. And then we have gone back to square one. Of course, these decisions are multifaceted and this is but one of the very many important things to take into account. But in a world-wide effort, like COVAX, to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, rather than equal distribution of vaccines to all nations, it might be worth considering vaccine distribution based on the current or near future projection of each country’s situation. 

-Renata


Resources

NY Times Article on Brazil Vaccine Situation, accessed 1/20/2021

COVAX Website, accessed 1/20/2021

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