Equitable Access to Vaccines: Myth or Reality?

Yao, Jiaxiong; Hakobyan, Shushanik; Rawlings, Henry

doi:10.5089/9798400229015.001

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Despite appealing rhetoric on solidarity, multilateralism has proved extremely disappointing in terms of vaccine equity. An International Monetary Fund study concluded that such disparities were overwhelmingly due to the lack of access in low-income countries and only marginally the result of vaccine hesitancy (Hakobyan et al, 2022). The myriad global and regional institutions, both old and new, did not rise to the challenge of vaccine equity – in line with Hale, Held and Young’s (2013: 3) critique of international institutions’ capacity – aggravated by deficiencies in multilateral leadership.…”

Section: The Disappointments Of Covid Multilateralismmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccine apartheid and the failure of global cooperation

Brown

Rosier

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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The equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most important tests of global cooperation that the world has faced in recent decades. Collectively, global leaders failed that crucible abysmally, creating a ‘vaccine apartheid’ that divided the world according to income into countries with widespread access and those without. Why, given that leaders were fully aware of the risks and injustice of vaccine inequity, did governments of wealthy countries hoard doses, impede the expansion of vaccine manufacturing and otherwise prevent equitable access to vaccines? We argue that their decisions to act selfishly are best explained by governments’ accountability to domestic constituencies, their lack of leadership and commitment to multilateralism and their adoption of short-term perspectives, as well as their unwillingness to curb the influence of profit-oriented global pharmaceutical companies and, to a certain extent, of an additional private actor, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Section: The Disappointments Of Covid Multilateralismmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccine apartheid and the failure of global cooperation

Brown

Rosier

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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show abstract

“…The World Health Organization (WHO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other leading international organizations observed vaccine-access inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though initially a production- and international supply chain-related issue, following national vaccine roll-outs, vaccine-access inequality was primarily caused by unequal in-country vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy [ 6 ]. In turn, the lack of data, verified information, health records, education, and digitalized surveillance systems caused problems related to unequal vaccine uptake.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%