Vaccine equity

Vaccine equity means ensuring that everyone in the world has equal access to vaccines.[1][2] The importance of vaccine equity has been emphasized by researchers and public health experts during the COVID-19 pandemic[3] but is relevant to other illnesses and vaccines as well. Historically, world-wide immunization campaigns have led to the eradication of smallpox and significantly reduced polio, measles, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus.[4]

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There are important reasons to establish mechanisms for global vaccine equity.[4] Multiple factors support the emergence and spread of pandemics, not least the ability of people to travel long distances and widely transmit viruses.[5][6] A virus that remains in circulation somewhere in the world is likely to spread and recur in other areas. The more widespread a virus is, and the larger and more varied the population it affects, the more likely it is to evolve more transmissible, more virulent,[4] and more vaccine resistant variants.[1] Vaccine equity can be essential to stop both the spread and the evolution of a disease. Ensuring that all populations receive access to vaccines is a pragmatic means towards achieving global public health. Failing to do so increases the likelihood of further waves of a disease.[4][7]

Infectious diseases are disproportionately likely to affect those in low and middle-income neighborhoods and countries (LMICs), making vaccine equity an issue for local and national public health and for foreign policy. Ethically and morally, access for all to essential medicines such as vaccines is fundamentally related to the human right to health, which is well founded in international law.[4][7][8][9] Economically, vaccine inequity damages the global economy. Supply chains cross borders: areas with very high vaccination rates still depend on areas with lower vaccination rates for goods and services.[10]

Achieving vaccine equity requires addressing inequalities and roadblocks in the production, trade, and health care delivery of vaccines.[11] Challenges include scaling-up of technology transfer and production, costs of production, safety profiles of vaccines, and anti vaccine disinformation and aggression.[12]

  1. ^ a b "COVID vaccines: Widening inequality and millions vulnerable". UN News. United Nations. 19 September 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  2. ^ Yamey, Gavin; Garcia, Patricia; Hassan, Fatima; Mao, Wenhui; McDade, Kaci Kennedy; Pai, Madhukar; Saha, Senjuti; Schellekens, Philip; Taylor, Andrea; Udayakumar, Krishna (24 March 2022). "It is not too late to achieve global covid-19 vaccine equity" (PDF). BMJ. 376: e070650. doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-070650. PMC 8943596. PMID 35331982. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  3. ^ Ye, Yang; Zhang, Qingpeng; Wei, Xuan; Cao, Zhidong; Yuan, Hsiang-Yu; Zeng, Daniel Dajun (February 2022). "Equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines makes a life-saving difference to all countries". Nature Human Behaviour. 6 (2): 207–216. doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01289-8. ISSN 2397-3374. PMC 8873023. PMID 35102361.
  4. ^ a b c d e Van De Pas, Remco; Widdowson, Marc-Alain; Ravinetto, Raffaella; N Srinivas, Prashanth; Ochoa, Theresa J.; Fofana, Thierno Oumar; Van Damme, Wim (2 January 2022). "COVID-19 vaccine equity: a health systems and policy perspective". Expert Review of Vaccines. 21 (1): 25–36. doi:10.1080/14760584.2022.2004125. ISSN 1476-0584. PMC 8631691. PMID 34758678.
  5. ^ Quammen, David (2012). Spillover : animal infections and the next human pandemic (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06680-7.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b "Access to Medicines and Human Rights". Health and Human Rights Resource Guide. François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Vaccine equity: A fundamental imperative in the fight against COVID-19". PLOS Medicine. 19 (2): e1003948. 22 February 2022. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003948. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 8863246. PMID 35192620.
  9. ^ Marks, Stephen P. (November 29, 2012). "Access to Essential Medicines as acomponent of the right to health". In Clapham, Andrew; Robinson, Mary (eds.). Realizing the Right to Health (PDF). Zurich, Switzerland: Rüfer& Rub. pp. 82–101. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference lanceted was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Gill, Indermit; Ruta, Michele (11 February 2022). "Why global vaccine equity is the prescription for a full recovery". Brookings. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  12. ^ Hotez, Peter J.; Bottazzi, Maria Elena (27 January 2022). "Whole Inactivated Virus and Protein-Based COVID-19 Vaccines". Annual Review of Medicine. 73 (1): 55–64. doi:10.1146/annurev-med-042420-113212. ISSN 0066-4219. PMID 34637324. S2CID 238747462.