Four actions Australia should take to advance equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines have become increasingly stark. By the end of March 2022, two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, 11.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered globally and 64.3% of the global population had received at least one dose, but only 14.5% of people in low-income countries (LICs) had received a dose.1 According to the WHO’s Director-General, by February 2022, 116 countries were still not on track to meet the WHO’s target of vaccinating 70% of the population of each country by mid-2022.2COVAX, the global program for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, has failed to realise its promise. It began with the modest goal to vaccinate 20% of the global population (enough for only health workers and the most vulnerable groups) and to deliver at least 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. But COVAX delivered fewer than half of this number in 2021,3 and by the end of March 2022 had yet to reach 1.4 billion doses.