A global database of COVID-19 vaccinations

An effective rollout of vaccinations against COVID-19 offers the most promising prospect of bringing the pandemic to an end. We present the Our World in Data COVID-19 vaccination dataset, a global public dataset that tracks the scale and rate of the vaccine rollout across the world. This dataset is updated regularly, and includes data on the total number of vaccinations administered; first and second doses administered; daily vaccination rates; and population-adjusted coverage for all countries for which data is available (138 countries as of 17 March 2021). It will be maintained as the global vaccination campaign continues to progress. This resource aids policymakers and researchers in understanding the rate of current and potential vaccine rollout; the interactions with non-vaccination policy responses; the potential impact of vaccinations on pandemic outcomes such as transmission, morbidity, and mortality; and global inequalities in vaccine access.

is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted March 26, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.21254100 doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice.

47
This dataset tracks the total number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered by country; 48 broken down by first and second doses (where national data is made available); and derived 49 daily vaccination rates and population-adjusted figures. The combination of these metrics 50 allows users to understand the scale and rate of vaccine rollouts relative to population; 51 compare rollout rates between countries; and assess differences in prioritization for 52 countries with one-and two-dose schedules. This data is compiled from official sources, 53 including health ministries, government reports and official social media accounts.

55
Our COVID-19 vaccination dataset is already used widely by journalists, policymakers, 56 researchers and the public. The World Health Organization (WHO) relies on this dataset for 57 its official COVID-19 dashboard. 4 Our dataset is also used by policymakers to benchmark 58 the performance of national vaccination programs across countries. The WHO have also 59 relied on this dataset to understand the inequities in global vaccine access, using this 60 . CC-BY 4.0 International license It is made available under a perpetuity.
is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint informing the public during this global pandemic, and it is essential that leading media 66 outlets have timely, transparent and reliable data to present to their audiences. The 67 demonstration of rapid vaccine rollouts across the world, and its potential impacts on 68 transmission and mortality has the potential to shape public attitudes towards vaccinations, 69 reduce vaccine hesitancy, and ultimately lead to an improved response to the pandemic. An 70 effective vaccination response relies on high uptake rates. 9 As such, our dataset plays a key 71 role in building the public trust that is essential to an effective global response to the COVID-72 19 pandemic.

74
Our dataset has been widely-used by the scientific community across multiple disciplines. It 75 has been used to highlight global inequalities in vaccine access, with strong calls to action 76 for the acceleration of financial and policy response efforts to close the existing gaps. 10 It 77 has been used by researchers to identify countries with particularly effective vaccine rollouts, 78 thereby enabling an analysis of how this was achieved. 11 These analyses emphasize a 79 range of drivers that explain the large differences across countries that we document: 80 differences in the funding of the development and production of the vaccines; differences in 81 the scheduling and management of vaccinations; differences in public trust and uptake 82 rates; and differentiated responsibilities between national, regional and local level actors. 12

83
Health policy researchers have used this dataset to assess differences in vaccine 84 prioritization strategiesfor example, which groups should be offered the vaccine first. 13  is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint   is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint

Large differences in vaccination rates between countries 125
The data reveals large differences in the scale of the vaccine rollout across countries. As of is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint

139 140
Second, the rate of vaccinations over time. We see large differences in these rates between 141 countries (Figure 4a, b). Israel has received significant attention for the rate of its is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint       is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint 183 approach favoured by the United Kingdom has been frequently contrasted with the approach 184 of many countries in the European Union. 18-20 This is reflected in our dataset: Germany, for 185 example, has administered a first dose to a much smaller share of the population (8.1%) but 186 has fully vaccinated a higher share than the UK (3.6%). While the share of the population 187 that received a first dose in Germany was much lower than in the UK, the share who 188 received a second dose is actually higher.    is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint    is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint

Metrics included in this dataset 242
The metrics included in this dataset are a combination of original metrics reported by official 243 sources, and derived metrics calculated by Our World in Data.

245
The nine metrics included in this dataset are the following.      is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint        is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint

299
Third, in some instanceswhere national data is not made available in machine-readable 300 format by official sources, but is aggregated by third-party sourceswe source data from 301 non-official publishers (e.g. https://covid19tracker.ca/vaccinationtracker.html for Canada).

302
These are also regularly audited for accuracy against the original official sources.

Calculating derived metrics 305
Derived metrics are calculated from the raw official counts in two ways.    is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint

Technical validation 334
The Our World in Data COVID-19 vaccination database represents a collation of publicly 335 available data published by official sources. The main quality concern for the database itself 336 is whether it represents an accurate record of the official data. We employ several strategies 337 to ensure that this is the case.

339
First, all automated collection of data, whether obtained from official channels or non-official 340 publishers, is subject to initial manual verification when it is added to our database for the 341 first time.

343
Second, we employ a range of data validation processes, both for our manual and

Data access and publication 356
Vaccination data is updated daily and is made available via two channels. Firstly, all data 357 and scripts used for data collection are published and updated in our public GitHub 358 repository (https://github.com/owid/covid-19-data/tree/master/public/data/vaccinations). This is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint  is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted March 26, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.21254100 doi: medRxiv preprint