A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China has applied mathematics to the problem of COVID-19 vaccine distribution. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the group describes calculating an equitable vaccine distribution level that would protect the most people. Dan Yamin, with Tel Aviv University, published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team in China.
Shortly after scientists developed vaccines to protect people against COVID-19, it became clear that many more people in high-income countries were receiving the vaccine than were those living in countries at the lower end of the economic scale. The gulf has widened throughout the pandemic, as people in the U.S., Europe and other high-income places have received booster shots even as many people in poor countries have yet to receive any vaccine. Scientists warn that this situation is not in the best interest of people in either economic category because if people in low-income countries are not vaccinated, then the virus will keep mutating, prolonging the pandemic, and many more people in the low-income countries will die.
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