COVID-19 had been wreaking havoc all across the world while world leaders scrambled to find a vaccine. But since the development of vaccines from multiple manufacturers, vaccine rollout in countries has hit many roadblocks. In rich countries, over half of the population has gotten their first vaccine shot, while in low income countries, only 2% of the population has gotten their first dose. Covax, a coalition run by the World Health Organization, has been seeking to equitably distribute vaccines to countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, and Fiji. However, millions of those vaccines have ended up in rich countries, leaving the people in lower income countries with no solution to the pandemic.

In recent weeks, Pfizer has committed to selling 500 million doses of their vaccines to the United States at a not for profit price, for the US to distribute to other nations where they see fit. In private talks with Moderna and Pfizer, President Biden has requested that both Moderna and Pfizer donate doses. This has raised questions specifically regarding Moderna considering that their vaccine used 2.5 billion in aid from the US government to subsidize the process, and because Moderna also employed technology developed by the National Institute of Health. These considerations have laid the groundwork for pressure on Biden to use the Defense Production Act, a 1950 act that gives the government specific power over corporations, to mandate those corporations to give those vaccines. 

On the global scale, not only are companies refusing to cooperate, rich countries have been taking advantage of the small portions that those companies have provided, and kept it for themselves. 

Covax’s mission is to provide low income countries with vaccines equitably, by receiving vaccines from donor countries such as New Zealand, United States, and Japan. Their goal originally was to help distribute enough vaccines for 20% of the population from 92 low income countries, which would equal about 2 billion doses of vaccines, coming primarily from AstraZeneca and Pfizer. So far, only 303 million of those doses have reached those countries. 

The other millions of doses have gone to G7 countries, including Canada, France, and Australia. These nations have taken ⅓ of the vaccine supply from Covax, even though the combined populations are only about 13% of the global population. In most rich countries, including the United States, over half of the population is vaccinated, compared to the 2% of low income countries. Because of these statistics, Canada received lots of backlash, and has since stopped taking vaccines from Covax. 

Considering the lopsided statistics, where are the discrepancies happening?

One overarching issue is that Covax has not blocked donor countries from digging into the vaccine supply, allowing those countries to use the vaccines without repercussions. Covax has also described that low income countries have had issues with distribution of vaccines, either for lack of facilities or plans. And, donor countries have been donating vaccines in too small quantities, too close to the expiration date, making it very difficult to roll out the vaccines effectively or safely, and these donor countries have made the rollout political by only donating when they are sure that they will get their praise after it is over. Representative Juan Vargas from California has requested that, for example, all vaccine vials from the United States have an American flag, in order to give credit to the United States.

Solutions are both numerous and limited. Perhaps the WHO and Covax have a duty to help provide low income countries not only with vaccines, but also in the form of plans for rollout. Maybe Covax should have disallowed donor countries from taking vaccines. And it’s likely solutions cannot only stem from the global organizations, but from each donor country. Perhaps the rich countries should be disciplined in sharing with the world. Maybe politics should be removed from a global crisis, so that everyone is giving what they can. 

But whatever the solutions end up being, the pandemic will continue to rage, leaving people in low income areas to suffer and die as rich countries hoard COVID-19 vaccines.