Global COVID-19 vaccine equity and the booster dose in low-resource countries: A decolonizing global health perspective

Abstract

On July 30, 2021, the administration of a third (booster) dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was introduced to enhance immunity among vaccinated people. Many developed countries have introduced vaccine booster doses as additional protection for their population to mitigate the severity of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, this idea is currently being replicated by low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), where full vaccination coverage is, as of now, still below 45%, which is considerably lower than that of high-income countries (73%). This commentary focuses on the critiques of introducing booster dose strategy in low-income countries. We highlight different decolonizing global health perspectives, including vaccine equity, effective resource utilization, and priority setup, in this commentary.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• booster dose
• lower middle-income countries
• vaccine equity
• decolonizing global health