Coronavirus Disease-19 Vaccine Inequity and Gross Domestic Product

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is currently one of the major health issues worldwide.[1] The significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid and preventive responses by governments to control the disease.[2] Most early disease control strategies include human mobility reduction (e.g., travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine), closure or lockdown (e.g., schools, businesses, and public spaces closure), and health policies modifications (e.g., using rapid COVID-19 test or polymerase chain reaction test).[3] Over the centuries, vaccines are an effective way to combat the spread of diseases and one of the most effective and reliable methods to prevent disease.[4] Past studies and ongoing clinical trials have shown that safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 are the best tools for controlling ongoing epidemics.[5] The World Health Organization estimates that at least 65% of a given population should be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the virus to protect the population.[6] Given the remarkable effectiveness of vaccines, their availability gives people a sense of relief that they can better protect their health. However, several countries are still experiencing rapidly increasing cases of the disease and causing mutations and have not implemented the general vaccination program effectively.[7] While efforts are being made to prevent the spread of the virus, the choice and implementation of pandemic control policies vary considerably between countries.[2] One of the determining factors in the allocation of expenditures in the health-care sector is the income of countries, which is usually expressed in terms of Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.[8] There is a positive relationship between the per capita cost of health care and per capita income in developed countries, but per capita income also explains the high percentage of changes in costs.[9] The purpose of this article was to provide an overview of the relationship between GDP and the implementation of general vaccination policies at the international level. The rate of implementation of the general vaccination policy was considered based on the dose of vaccine per 1000 population, the total dose of the vaccine, the number of people vaccinated, and the number of people with full vaccination. The data were extracted from two international websites on August 21, 2021.[10,11] Data from 48 countries were fully available for this assessment [Table 1]. The results of this overview showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between GDP and the total dose of injected vaccines (r = 0.698 P < 0.001). Therefore, it seems that as countries increase their gross national income, they can spend more money on the health sector to control COVID-19 and provide vaccines to implement preventive public policies. Pardhan and Drydakis found, in the first wave of coronary heart disease among European countries, there was a negative relationship between the number of new COVID-19 cases and per capita GDP, after controlling for health determinants including general health expenditures. Moreover, the countries with the highest per capita GDP in Europe experienced the least change in the new COVID-19 cases during this period.[12] Therefore, we suggest that the rich countries should consider assisting the poor countries in their vaccination shortage given that the COVID-19 pandemic can only be under control when the herd immunity is met worldwide.