Determinants of access to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: a preliminary approach

Abstract

Background The determinants of access to immunizers are still poorly understood, leading to questions about which criteria were considered in this distribution. Given the above, the present study aimed to analyze the determinants of access to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by different countries. Methods The study covered 189 countries using data from different public databases, and collected until February 19, 2021. We used eight explanatory variables: gross domestic product (GDP), extreme poverty, human development index (HDI), life expectancy, median age, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, COVID-19 tests, and COVID-19 deaths. The endogenous variables were total vaccine doses, vaccine doses per thousand, and days of vaccination. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to establish the causal relationship between the country's COVID-19 impact, socioeconomic variables, and vaccine access. To support SEM, we used confirmatory factor analysis, t-test, and Pearson's correlation. Results We collected the sample on February 19, and to date, 80 countries (42.1%) had already received a batch of immunizers against COVID-19. The countries with first access to the vaccine (e.g., number of days elapsed since they took the first dose) were the United Kingdom (68), China (68), Russia (66), and Israel (62). The countries receiving the highest doses were the United States, China, India, and Israel. The countries with extreme poverty had lower access to vaccines and the richer countries gained priority access. Countries most affected by COVID (deaths and cases) also received immunizers earlier and in greater volumes. Unfortunately, similar to other vaccines, indicators, such as income, poverty, and human development, influence vaccines' access. Thus affecting the population of vulnerable and less protected countries. Therefore, global initiatives for the equitable distribution of COVID need to be discussed and encouraged. Conclusions Determinants of vaccine distribution consider the impact of the disease in the country and are also affected by favorable socioeconomic indicators. The COVID-19 vaccines need to be accessible to all affected countries, regardless of their social hands.

Adverse Mentions, Negative Sentiment, and Emotions in COVID-19 Vaccine Tweets and Their Association with Vaccination Uptake: Global Comparison of 192 Countries

“…Covariates: We considered COVID-19 morbidity (COVID-19 infection cases per million population) and mortality rates (COVID-19 linked deaths per million population) as of December 2021 for each country, adopted from the Economist Intelligence Unit [ 44 ]. In addition, we included socioeconomic and political determinants that are known to predict the access to vaccines or actual vaccination rate of nations [ 45 ]: total population, population density, and GDP per capita adopted from Mathieu et al [ 6 ], literacy adopted from Roser and Ortiz-Ospina [ 46 ], democracy index (each country’s scores for electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties: 1 = authoritarian regime, 2 = hybrid regime, 3 = flawed democracy, 4 = full democracy) adopted from the Economist Intelligence Unit [ 44 ], and institutional quality (voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption indices; lowest score = −3.00, highest score = 3.00), and human development index (composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development: 1.0–0.8 = very high, 0.79–0.70 = high, 0.70–0.55 = medium, below 0.55 = low) adopted from Kaufmann and Kraay [ 47 ].…”

SARS-CoV-2: Emergence of New Variants and Effectiveness of Vaccines

“…The current pandemic situation is ongoing and a continuous threat to public health, and still, no anti- SARS-CoV-2 drugs or vaccine options have shown absolute health benefits ( Singh et al., 2020a ; Singh et al., 2020b ). SARS-CoV-2 is very challenging due to age factors, gender differences, ecological factors, and its quick evolution ( de Oliveira et al., 2021 ). The investigations from various fields to come up with effective treatment options and vaccine developments are shown in Figure 2 ( Marian et al., 2021 ).…”

Teaching during COVID-19 pandemic in practical laboratory classes of applied biochemistry and pharmacology: A validated fast and simple protocol for detection of SARS-CoV-2 Spike sequences

“…In addition, we cannot exclude the necessity of repeated lock-down strategies, especially considering SARS-CoV-2 variants [ 55 ]. Finally, we are experiencing dramatic differences in the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign when high-income and low-income countries are compared [ 17 – 19 ].…”

“…Only recently, the availability of vaccines and the activation of programs for extensive vaccination contribute to an improvement of the health and social situation [ 13 – 16 ], but we expect that the difficulty in organizing teaching activities will persist. In this respect, we are experiencing dramatic differences in tackling SARS-CoV-2 (for instance with the vaccination campaign), due to the relevant heterogeneity between high-income and low-income countries [ 17 – 19 ]. Therefore, some countries will not be able to solve in short time the teaching difficulties, due to persistence of high levels of SARS-CoV-2 spreading.…”