Hoarding Vaccines or Hedging Vaccine R&D Risks? — Motivation for Overbooking COVID-19 Vaccines in High-Income Countries

Document Type : Letter to Editor

Author

Department of Situation and Policy, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China

Abstract

Hoarding Vaccines or Hedging Vaccine R&D Risks? — Motivation for Overbooking COVID-19 Vaccines in High-Income Countries

Keywords

Main Subjects


Dear Editor,

 

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, global supplies of vaccines were extremely tight, but some high-income countries (HICs) pre-ordered more vaccines than their nationals needed. We consider an entity overbook COVID-19 vaccines when the percentage of the national population that can be vaccinated with the pre-order vaccine reaches or exceeds 200% since most vaccines require only two doses,1 and not everyone is suitable for vaccination. ...(Read more...)

  1. Wouters OJ, Shadlen KC, Salcher-Konrad M, et al. Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment. Lancet. 2021;397(10278):1023-1034. doi:1016/s0140-6736(21)00306-8
  2. Binagwaho A, Mathewos K, Davis S. Equitable and effective distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines - a scientific and moral obligation. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2022;11(2):100-102. doi:34172/ijhpm.2021.49
  3. Bollyky TJ, Bown CP. The Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism: Only Cooperation Can End the Pandemic. Foreign Affairs; 2020. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-07-27/vaccine-nationalism-pandemic. Accessed July 15, 2023.
  4. Boum Ii Y, Ouattara A, Torreele E, Okonta C. How to ensure a needs-driven and community-centred vaccination strategy for COVID-19 in Africa. BMJ Glob Health. 2021;6(2):e005306. doi:1136/bmjgh-2021-005306
  5. Gastrow C, Lawrance BN. Vaccine nationalism and the future of research in Africa. Afr Stud Rev. 2021;64(1):1-4. doi:1017/asr.2021.12
  6. Kretchmer H. Vaccine Nationalism–And How it Could Affect us All. World Economic Forum; 2021. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/what-is-vaccine-nationalism-coronavirus-its-affects-covid-19-pandemic. Accessed July 15, 2023.
  7. Joi P. Are COVID-19 Vaccine Expiration Dates Too Cautious? Gavi; 2021. https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/are-covid-19-vaccine-expiration-dates-too-cautious. Accessed March 21, 2023.
  8. Fischman-Afori O, Marcowitz-Bitton M, Morris EM. A global pandemic remedy to vaccine nationalism. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2021;54:101-155. doi:2139/ssrn.3829419
  9. Santos Rutschman A. The COVID-19 vaccine race: intellectual property, collaboration (s), nationalism and misinformation. Washington University Journal of Law & Policy. 2021;64(1):167-202. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3656929.
  10. McAdams D, McDade KK, Ogbuoji O, Johnson M, Dixit S, Yamey G. Incentivising wealthy nations to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX): a game theory perspective. BMJ Glob Health. 2020;5(11):e003627. doi:1136/bmjgh-2020-003627
  11. Torjesen I. COVID-19: pre-purchasing vaccine-sensible or selfish? BMJ. 2020;370:m3226. doi:1136/bmj.m3226
  12. Lee YN. Data Shows the U.S. is the World’s Largest Covid Vaccine Donor—Way Ahead of China. CNBC; 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/covid-us-is-the-worlds-largest-donor-of-vaccines-data-shows.html. Accessed September 15, 2023.
  13. Eaton J, Murphy J. 15 Million Covid Vaccine Doses Thrown Away in the U.S. Since March, New Data Shows. NBC News; 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/america-has-wasted-least-15-million-covid-vaccine-doses-march-n1278211?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma. Accessed September 18, 2023.
  14. Merelli A. Europe Sent Nigeria Up to 1 Million Near-Expired Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine. QUARTZ; 2021. https://qz.com/africa/2100629/europe-donated-near-expired-doses-of-vaccine-to-african-countries. Accessed September 18, 2023.
  15. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19. WHO; 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---18-august-2020. Updated August 18, 2020. Accessed September 28, 2023.
  • Receive Date: 19 November 2023
  • Revise Date: 26 January 2024
  • Accept Date: 10 February 2024
  • First Publish Date: 12 February 2024