Failure to achieve global vaccine equity will have dire consequences

I appreciate Hurley’s call for internationally equitable vaccination, which makes a clear case on the grounds of both altruism and self-interest.1 Many rich and powerful countries are donating vaccine doses through Covax. But these doses—in the order of hundreds of millions—are too little and too slow.

With a global population of 7.7 billion people, vaccine acquired herd immunity is likely to require at least 12 billion doses. Current production estimates put us …