Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: A New Global Approach

Bouderhem, Rabai

doi:10.3390/vaccines10111795

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 26 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…It has some “flexibilities”, almost impossible to make operative in real life. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled critical evaluation, and many authors proposed a profound review of the Agreement [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Vaccines Industry and Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did We Get Here: The Best Vaccines Ever Facing the Highest Public Hesitancy?

Ferreccio

2023

Vaccines

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mRNA vaccine technology is the most interesting final product of decades of research. This new platform for public health is simple to transfer to low-income countries and can be used against diverse agents, including cancer. It is environmentally clean, relatively low-cost, and does not use animals for its production. Most importantly, mRNA vaccines have been highly efficacious in avoiding serious disease and death from COVID-19. Yet, at the highest point of the pandemic, many voices, including some from prominent positions, opposed their use. Similarly, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, which are highly effective, very safe, and probably confer long life protection against its HPV types, faced strong parents’ hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy has been the subject of extensive research, focusing primarily on factors associated with the public, the political environment, and messaging strategies. However, the issue of unfair worldwide access to the COVID-19 vaccines has recently sparked significant debate about the vaccine industry’s role. Recent data demonstrated that the system’s perceived unfairness with the masses is behind the growing populist anti-vaccine movements worldwide. The association between populism and antivaccine attitudes has been reported at country and individual levels. The anti-science attitudes behind vaccine hesitancy emerge when the scientist is not found credible due to the suspicion that they had monetary investments in pharmaceutical companies. Here, I argue that the obscurity of the vaccine market, but also its unfairness, are important factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy. The purpose of this commentary is to stimulate a review of current market regulations and to improve its transparency and fairness, particularly in the context of public health emergencies. By doing so, a new pandemic would find us better prepared. The general population and much of the healthcare community often ignore the years of dedicated work and substantial public funding that enabled the discovery and design of vaccines. Conversely, pharmaceutical companies often over-emphasize their investments in research and development. A decade ago, Marcia Angell provided a detailed breakdown of pharmaceutical expenses, revealing that marketing and administration costs were 2.5 times higher than research and development expenses; recently, Olivier Wouters confirmed the high expenditures of the pharmaceutical industry in lobbying and political campaign contributions. In this commentary, I will present the cases of HPV and COVID-19 vaccines as examples of when vaccines, instead of being public health goods, became market goods, creating large inequities and health costs. This failure is a structural cause behind more ideological vaccine hesitancy, less studied so far.

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Section: Vaccines Industry and Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did We Get Here: The Best Vaccines Ever Facing the Highest Public Hesitancy?

Ferreccio

2023

Vaccines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: A New Global Approach

Cited by 1 publication

References 26 publications

How Did We Get Here: The Best Vaccines Ever Facing the Highest Public Hesitancy?

How Did We Get Here: The Best Vaccines Ever Facing the Highest Public Hesitancy?

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