It has been a little over a year since the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. Since then, more than 2.6 million lives have been lost; entire nations have been locked down; economies have been severely disrupted. Amid what is arguably the worst health crisis in a century, scientists and research organizations around the world have, in just a year, produced a number of safe and effective vaccines. The discovery of these vaccines symbolized a hope of returning normal times. However, with all the excitement and hope comes the question of fair and equitable vaccine distribution in the world..

In what was described by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a “catastrophic moral failure”, the wealthiest nations have pre-ordered and hoarded a vast majority of the global vaccine production, while poor nations have been left behind. For example, the EU has ordered 1.6 billion vaccine shots from different suppliers around the world. Upon receiving all the orders, the EU will have a surplus enough to fully vaccinate more than half a billion people across the world. Similarly, the United States has secured more than 1.5 billion doses from several companies, and Canada has ordered an amount enough to fully vaccinate each one of its citizens five times, resulting in an excess of 150 million full vaccine pairs. While it’s understandable that all countries want to immunize their own citizens first, prioritising low-risk adults in wealthy countries over healthcare workers in poorer nations raises a moral question. And while these nations have ordered vaccine doses exceeding their need, others might even have to wait until next year to get their first shipment. 

With wealthy countries hoarding up most of the global vaccine production, lower income countries have no choice but to turn to Chinese and Russian vaccines, which are yet to convince the world of their safety and effectiveness. Results of two of these vaccines’ trials performed in the UAE and Brazil were not published, and without enough scientific data to back up their claim, these vaccines could have dire consequences. On the bright side, some lower income countries, such as India or South Africa,  are leveraging their vaccine production by securing manufacturing deals with vaccine suppliers like AstraZeneca to produce and distribute vaccines to themselves and other lower income countries.

Problems with vaccine rollout are not new. During the HIV/AIDS global epidemic, the developing world was severely affected, but it took more than a decade for the lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to be well distributed. More than 10 million lives were lost in the wait. In his opening remarks in the 148th WHO session, Dr. Ghebreyesus reminded the world of the H1N1 vaccine that only got distributed to lower income countries after the pandemic was already over. New reports predict a similar situation for COVID-19, where it is estimated that developing countries might have to wait until 2024 to get enough doses to fully vaccinate their whole population.

Governments had promised absolute cooperation when the vaccines were first announced. However, what the world has witnessed in the last couple of months have been nothing but the opposite. Patchy immunity in wealthy nations and the profits of the pharmaceutical industry seem to be the priority. There is hope, however. The United States, Canada, and the EU have a history of actively working with the WHO, so there is a possibility that vaccine distribution policies will be put in place. In addition, COVAX, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative finally seems to be getting enough funding to start distributing vaccines in poor countries that are in need of it. If the world can somehow manage to cooperate  for fair vaccine distribution, it might be a stepping stone to solving other global challenges such as global warming, hunger, and immigration. If greed wins, however, there will be millions of lives and livelihoods at risk for months or years to come.