Can COVID-19 Vaccines Be Global Public Goods?

Govind Persad
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

Everyone agrees worldwide access to vaccines, regardless of wealth or geography, is an ethical imperative. The language of global public goods may seem to express this commitment. But describing COVID-19 vaccines as global public goods is inaccurate and counterproductive to achieving the crucial goal of vaccinating everyone in the world.