Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity: Explained | Can vaccine distribution be made fairer?

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained | Can vaccine distribution be made fairer?” published in The Hindu on 14th November 2022

What is the News?

The Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity has recently been released.

What is the Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity?

Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity is a joint effort of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization(WHO) and the University of Oxford with cooperation across the UN system.

Purpose: It combines the latest data on the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines with the most recent socio-economic information. This is to illustrate why accelerating vaccine equity is not only critical to saving lives but also to drive a faster and fairer recovery from the pandemic with benefits for all.

What is Vaccine Equity?

Vaccine equity means that vaccines should be allocated across all countries based on needs and regardless of their economic status. 

Access to and allocation of vaccines should be based on principles grounded in the right of every human to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or any other social condition.

What are the key findings from the Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity?

Accessibility of vaccines: Only one in four people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in low and middle-income countries. In comparison, in high-income countries, three in four people have got at least one dose of the vaccine.

Affordability of vaccines: High-income countries have to increase their healthcare spending by 0.8% on average to cover the cost of vaccinating 70% of the population.

– On the other hand, Low-income countries have to increase their healthcare spending by 30-60% on average to cover the cost of vaccinating 70% of the population.

What are the efforts taken to reduce vaccine inequity?

The COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (COVAX) was launched with the aim to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination coverage in 34 low-coverage countries, along with their governments.