Using absolute risk reduction to guide the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines

Introduction Massive economic inequality, poverty and structural racism, in addition to intellectual property laws and regulations, are creating the conditions for gaping inequities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Journalists, activists and public health practitioners have characterised the largely preventable public health crisis as vaccine apartheid. At the time of this writing (January 2022), just 9.7% of people in lower-income countries had received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 60.6% globally.1 Vaccine inequities have also been observed within multiple countries such as India and South Africa.2 3 Efforts to bridge the gaps are largely failing. In April 2021, with input from the World Bank and consultants including McKinsey & Company, the WHO and other allied organisations launched the COVID-19 Global Access initiative (COVAX), in a stated attempt to address vaccine inequity by facilitating the global coordination of vaccine production and...
Source: Evidence-Based Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Open access, COVID-19 EBM opinion and debate Source Type: research