Global COVID-19 vaccine inequity: Preferences for overseas vaccine donations over booster shots

Abstract

As the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries (LICs) remains limited, governments of high-income countries face a trade-off between domestic containment through booster shots and global containment by helping LICs acquire first doses (“vaccine nationalism” vs “vaccine internationalism”). We provide empirical evidence on how residents of a high-income country view this ethical dilemma by surveying 1527 UK adults recruited online. Support for vaccine donations to LICs is high. On average, study participants chose to donate 65% of UK's COVID-19 vaccines, which were ordered for booster shots, to LICs. Holding all other factors constant, women, younger individuals, and those who are not fully vaccinated preferred to donate a larger percentage to LICs. The UK public's preferences for prioritizing vaccine donations over booster shot programs suggest broad support for national policies that strike a balance between domestic containment and global philanthropy.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Booster shots
• Vaccine donation
• Inequality
• Global coordination
• Vaccine nationalism