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Measuring income-associated inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination on a global scale: a modeling study

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Abstract

Inequalities in the accessibility and utilization of quality, safe, and effective coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines across and within countries limited their value in protecting health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We quantified cross-country, income-associated inequality in COVID-19 vaccination using statistical models based on the data for 79 countries through December 2021. We found notable inequality in vaccinations per capita. At least 11.9% of doses administered in high-income countries could be redistributed to low-income countries to substantially reduce income-associated inequality in vaccinations. The results of this modeling study indicate that reliance on multiple doses of vaccine to attain optimal protection from COVID-19 is a significant contributor to inequality in vaccinations per capita. Dose-sharing mechanisms should account for and include efforts to optimize the capabilities of health systems to deliver vaccines.

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Data availability

The raw datasets used in the current study are publicly available and can be efficiently extracted from the sources indicated in the Methods. The processed datasets that were entered into the models and the analytical or statistical source code used are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These are currently being used for further research. Data and code sharing will require a Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique

    Floriano Amimo

  2. Department of Surgery, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA

    Anthony Magit

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  1. Floriano Amimo
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  2. Anthony Magit
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Contributions

FA contributed to conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, project administration, and funding acquisition. AM contributed to writing—reviewing and editing and funding acquisition. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Floriano Amimo.

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Conflict of interest

FA reports consultancy fees from the WHO. AM has none to declare.

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Ethical approval is not necessary because this research did not collect identifiable human material and data.

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List of abbreviations and acronyms

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Amimo, F., Magit, A. Measuring income-associated inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination on a global scale: a modeling study. J Public Health Pol 44, 449–463 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-023-00433-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-023-00433-6

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