The relationship between macro-socioeconomics determinants and COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Abstract

Since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has continued to spread globally, many countries have started vaccinations at the end of December 2020. This research examines the relationship between COVID-19 vaccine distribution and two macro-socioeconomics measures, including human development index and gross domestic product, among 25 countries for two points in time, including February and August 2021. The COVID-19 dataset is a collection of the COVID-19 data maintained by Our World in Data. It is a daily updated dataset and includes confirmed cases, vaccinations, deaths, and testing data. Ordinary Least Squares was applied to examine how macro-socioeconomic measures predict the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine over time. Results: The results indicate that a higher gross domestic product per capita is positively associated with higher COVID-19 vaccine distribution, and this relationship becomes more robust over time. However, some countries may have more successful vaccine distribution results regardless of their gross domestic product. In addition, the result shows human development index does not have a significant relationship with vaccine distribution. Conclusion: Economic measures may be counted as a more vital indicator for vaccine distribution as they have a more direct relationship distribution with health infrastructure than social measures such as human development index.

Keywords

• covid-19
• immunization programs
• vaccine distribution
• gross domestic product
• human development index
• sars-cov-2 infection
• pfizer vaccine