Cargando…

COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines

The COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced the chronic inequality that exists between populations and communities as regards global healthcare. Vaccination, an appropriate tool for the prevention of infection, should be guaranteed by means of proportionate interventions to defeat such inequality in populat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bolcato, Matteo, Rodriguez, Daniele, Feola, Alessandro, Di Mizio, Giulio, Bonsignore, Alessandro, Ciliberti, Rosagemma, Tettamanti, Camilla, Trabucco Aurilio, Marco, Aprile, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8224034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34063863
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060538
_version_ 1783711809168998400
author Bolcato, Matteo
Rodriguez, Daniele
Feola, Alessandro
Di Mizio, Giulio
Bonsignore, Alessandro
Ciliberti, Rosagemma
Tettamanti, Camilla
Trabucco Aurilio, Marco
Aprile, Anna
author_facet Bolcato, Matteo
Rodriguez, Daniele
Feola, Alessandro
Di Mizio, Giulio
Bonsignore, Alessandro
Ciliberti, Rosagemma
Tettamanti, Camilla
Trabucco Aurilio, Marco
Aprile, Anna
author_sort Bolcato, Matteo
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced the chronic inequality that exists between populations and communities as regards global healthcare. Vaccination, an appropriate tool for the prevention of infection, should be guaranteed by means of proportionate interventions to defeat such inequality in populations and communities affected by a higher risk of infection. Equitable criteria of justice should be identified and applied with respect to access to vaccination and to the order in which it should be administered. This article analyzes, as regards the worldwide distribution of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, the various ways the principle of equity has been construed and applied or even overlooked. The main obstacle to equal access to vaccines is vaccine nationalism. The perception of equity varies with the differing reference values adopted. Adequate response to needs appears to be the principal rule for achieving the criterion of equity in line with distributive justice. Priorities must be set equitably based on rational parameters in accordance with current needs. The entire process must be governed by transparency, from parameter identification to implementation. The issue of equal access to vaccination affects the entire world population, necessitating specific protective interventions. In light of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has devised the COVAX plan to ensure that even the poorest nations of the world receive the vaccine; certain initiatives are also supported by the European Union (EU). This pandemic has brought to the fore the need to build a culture of equitable relationships both in each country’s own domain and with the rest of the world.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8224034
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82240342021-06-25 COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines Bolcato, Matteo Rodriguez, Daniele Feola, Alessandro Di Mizio, Giulio Bonsignore, Alessandro Ciliberti, Rosagemma Tettamanti, Camilla Trabucco Aurilio, Marco Aprile, Anna Vaccines (Basel) Commentary The COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced the chronic inequality that exists between populations and communities as regards global healthcare. Vaccination, an appropriate tool for the prevention of infection, should be guaranteed by means of proportionate interventions to defeat such inequality in populations and communities affected by a higher risk of infection. Equitable criteria of justice should be identified and applied with respect to access to vaccination and to the order in which it should be administered. This article analyzes, as regards the worldwide distribution of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, the various ways the principle of equity has been construed and applied or even overlooked. The main obstacle to equal access to vaccines is vaccine nationalism. The perception of equity varies with the differing reference values adopted. Adequate response to needs appears to be the principal rule for achieving the criterion of equity in line with distributive justice. Priorities must be set equitably based on rational parameters in accordance with current needs. The entire process must be governed by transparency, from parameter identification to implementation. The issue of equal access to vaccination affects the entire world population, necessitating specific protective interventions. In light of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has devised the COVAX plan to ensure that even the poorest nations of the world receive the vaccine; certain initiatives are also supported by the European Union (EU). This pandemic has brought to the fore the need to build a culture of equitable relationships both in each country’s own domain and with the rest of the world. MDPI 2021-05-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8224034/ /pubmed/34063863 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060538 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Commentary
Bolcato, Matteo
Rodriguez, Daniele
Feola, Alessandro
Di Mizio, Giulio
Bonsignore, Alessandro
Ciliberti, Rosagemma
Tettamanti, Camilla
Trabucco Aurilio, Marco
Aprile, Anna
COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title_full COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title_fullStr COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title_short COVID-19 Pandemic and Equal Access to Vaccines
title_sort covid-19 pandemic and equal access to vaccines
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8224034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34063863
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060538
work_keys_str_mv AT bolcatomatteo covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT rodriguezdaniele covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT feolaalessandro covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT dimiziogiulio covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT bonsignorealessandro covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT cilibertirosagemma covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT tettamanticamilla covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT trabuccoauriliomarco covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines
AT aprileanna covid19pandemicandequalaccesstovaccines