As of March 30, 86 percent of shots that have gone into arms worldwide have been administered in high and upper-middle-income countries with only 0.1% of doses having been administered in low-income countries
Staff work in a vaccination center as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in Geneva, Switzerland February 3, 2021.
Image: Denis Balibouse / Reuters
Well over three-quarters of the more than half-billion vaccine doses that have been administered have been used by the world’s richest countries. The reason, experts say, lies in how — and when — deals for doses were struck.
In the early days of the pandemic, when drugmakers were just starting to develop vaccines, placing orders for any of them was a risk. Wealthier countries could mitigate that risk by placing orders for multiple vaccines and, by doing so, tied up doses that smaller countries may have otherwise purchased, according to experts.
As a result, most higher-income countries were able to pre-order enough vaccines to cover their populations several times over, while others had trouble securing any doses at all. Throughout 2020, even middle-income countries had trouble winning contracts.
“We saw it with countries like Peru and Mexico,” said Andrea Taylor, a researcher at Duke University who is studying the vaccine purchase agreements. “Money wasn’t the problem for them. They have the financing to make the purchases, but they couldn’t get to the front of the line.”
©2019 New York Times News Service