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What it will take to vaccinate the world against COVID-19

A special report outlines the challenges — from unleashing the power of mRNA vaccines, to the battle for temporary relief on intellectual-property rights.
  1. Aisling Irwin

    1. Aisling Irwin is freelance journalist based in Oxfordshire, UK.

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A healthcare professional prepares a dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

Vaccines for the world? People in low-income countries are unlikely to be vaccinated before the end of 2022, researchers are forecasting. Credit: Sandra Sanders/Reuters

Within just a few months, pharmaceutical firms have produced hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine. But the world needs billions — and as fast as possible. Companies say they could make enough vaccines to immunize most of the world’s population by the end of 2021. But this doesn’t take into account politically based delays in distribution, such as countries imposing export controls — or that the overwhelming majority of doses are going to wealthier countries. This situation is fuelling a campaign to temporarily waive intellectual-property rights so that manufacturers in poorer countries can make the vaccines more quickly themselves.

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Nature 592, 176-178 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00727-3

References

  1. Pardi, N. et al. Nature Commun. 8, 14630 (2017).

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