Was the early allocation system of COVAX fair?

[globalhealthethics globalhealthethics]

COVAX is a prominent global initiative for supporting fair vaccine allocation under a distributive scheme. The initiative is co-led by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO), and countries participating in it are guaranteed access to a portfolio of vaccine against the SARS-COV-2 virus.

Regarding the allocation framework proposed for COVAX, it is foreseen that all participant countries that have requested vaccines through the scheme and are prepared to receive them, get enough doses to inoculate at least 20% of their population. Since it is impossible to reach this 20% at the same time in all participant countries, we need to find a fair way to distribute COVAX’s available doses among countries.

At the end of February 2021, COVAX allocated its first shipment of vaccines to a country in Africa with 30 million inhabitants, and that at that time had 86,000 cases of COVID-19 disease and 700 deaths caused by the virus. At the same time, a country in the Americas with a similar population of 32 million had counted 48,500 deaths from COVID-19 disease, and had a significantly higher number of cases: 1.4 million accumulated infections.

Was this allocation fair? What are the criteria and ethical values that should be given more weight when prioritising what country gets a vaccine shipment from COVAX?

• This Case was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by globalhealthethics globalhealthethics.
• This Case was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by globalhealthethics globalhealthethics.

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