COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution: An opportunity to revive the public health sector

We know that there is a vaccine shortage. Not just in India but across the world, especially in the poorer countries. We know that the developed and the middle income countries are doing much better in their inoculation campaigns against the novel coronavirus.

Till April 21, 2021 around 0.93 billion doses had been administered against the novel coronavirus. These doses were received by 0.51 billion people. But according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, only 0.21 billion have been completely vaccinated.

That is less than 2.73 per cent of the global population. Vaccination seems to be the next big hurdle that we are trying to cross in our fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Although more than a dozen different vaccines have been created to fight this pandemic, distributing them equitably and to everyone on the planet seems to have become the biggest challenge.

The World Health Organization has developed a framework for the production and distribution of vaccines. But the developed countries and their vaccine manufacturers, the ones responsible for developing these vaccines are against joining this initiative.