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. 2022 Jan;21(1):25-36.
doi: 10.1080/14760584.2022.2004125. Epub 2021 Nov 25.

COVID-19 vaccine equity: a health systems and policy perspective

Remco Van De Pas  1 , Marc-Alain Widdowson  2 , Raffaella Ravinetto  1 , Prashanth N Srinivas  3 , Theresa J Ochoa  4 , Thierno Oumar Fofana  5 , Wim Van Damme  1
Affiliations

COVID-19 vaccine equity: a health systems and policy perspective

Remco Van De Pas et al. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Introduction: The global COVID-19 vaccine rollout has highlighted inequities in the accessibility of countries to COVID-19 vaccines. Populations in low- and middle-income countries have found it difficult to have access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Areas covered: This perspective provides analyses on historical and contemporary policy trends of vaccine development and immunization programs, including the current COVID-19 vaccination drive, and governance challenges. Moreover, we also provide a comparative health system analysis of the COVID-19 vaccine deployment in some countries from different continents. It recommends that the international Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) partnership requires a strong governance mechanism and urgent financial investment.

Expert opinion: All WHO member states should agree on technology transfer and voluntary license-sharing via a commonly governed technology access pool and supported by a just Intellectual Property regime. Contextualized, dynamic understandings and country-specific versions of health systems strengthening are needed to improve vaccine equity in a sustainable matter.

Keywords: ACT-A; COVID-19 pandemic; TRIPS; Tanahashi health systems framework; capacity development; low-income countries; research & development ecosystem; technology transfer; vaccine equity.

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