In the United States, nearly 67% of the population is fully vaccinated for COVID-19. In low-income countries (LICs), however, less than 10% of the population has received a single dose of the vaccine. As vaccination rates in high-income countries (HICs) rise higher and higher, those in LICs remain dangerously low. This disparity between vaccination rates may be unsettling, but it is far from a coincidence.

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO), along with several other international organizations, launched COVAX, a global vaccination project aimed at guaranteeing the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. However, it soon became apparent that COVAX should not have left the drawing board. As COVAX struggled to secure funding, HICs took matters into their own hands by striking purchase deals with vaccine manufacturers— the floodgates were then open for the wealthiest countries in the world to hoard excessive doses of vaccines.

To put this in perspective, an estimated 870 million doses were taken by HICs, with 500 million doses hoarded by the United States alone. In addition, pharmaceutical companies continued to give priority to the countries that put money in their pockets. In 2021, Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna made $26 billion and $19.2 billion, respectively, by putting aside more than 75% of their COVID-19 vaccine deliveries for HICs. On top of vaccine hoarding, the refusal of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers in sharing mRNA vaccine technology with potential manufacturers in LICs put a stop to any attempt at boosting the global vaccine supply before it could even begin.

On October 12, 2021, several governments of HICs pledged to donate 1.8 billion vaccine doses to countries in need, but only 14% of the 1.8 billion doses were actually delivered. Western pharmaceutical companies donated only 12% of the doses they allocated to COVAX. Although it seems obvious to blame COVAX or HIC governments for failing to keep their promises, the root issue lies in the fact that a handful of pharmaceutical companies have a tight grasp on global vaccine supply and are reaping profits as the world strays farther away from achieving full recovery from the pandemic.

Information retrieved from Doctors Without Borders, United Nations, Time, Oxfam International, and The New York Times.