The impact of delayed access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Front Public Health
; 10: 1087138, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2240415
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
A majority of low-income (LIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) were unable to achieve at least 10% population coverage during initial vaccine rollouts, despite the rapid development of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. Nearly three years into this pandemic, evaluating the impact of inequities in vaccine access, uptake, and availability is long overdue. We hypothesized that a delay in receiving COVID-19 vaccines was associated with an increased toll on cumulative cases and mortality. Furthermore, this relationship was modified by the size of a country's economy.Methods:
We performed an ecological study assessing these relationships, in which a country's economic standing was assessed by world bank income classification, gross domestic product based on the purchasing power parity (GDP PPP) per capita category, and crude GDP PPP.Results:
Countries with the smallest economies reported first vaccination much later than larger economies on all three rankings, as much as 100 days longer. Among low-income countries, a one-day increase until the first vaccination was associated with a 1.92% (95% CI 0.100, 3.87) increase in cumulative cases when compared to high-income countries (p = 0.0395) when adjusting for population size, median age, and testing data availability. Similarly, among the lowest GDP PPP countries a one-day increase until the first vaccination was associated with a 2.73% (95% CI 0.100, 5.44) increase in cumulative cases when compared to the highest GDP PPP countries (p = 0.0415). When modeling cumulative mortality, effects in the same direction and magnitude were observed, albeit statistically non-significant.Conclusion:
Economic standing modified the effects of delayed access to COVID-19 vaccination on cumulative cases and mortality, in which LMICs tended to fare worse in outcomes than high-income countries despite the eventual rollout of vaccines. These findings highlight the importance of prioritizing equitable and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines across all countries, irrespective of economic size. Future studies should examine the impacts that vaccine inequities had on local transmission dynamics.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Vaccines
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Public Health
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Fpubh.2022.1087138
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