How should COVID-19 vaccines be distributed between the global north and south: a discrete choice experiment in six european countries

  1. Janina I Steinert  Is a corresponding author
  2. Henrike Sternberg
  3. Giuseppe A Veltri
  4. Tim Büthe
  1. Technical University of Munich, Germany
  2. University of Trento, Italy

Abstract

Background: The global distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations remains highly unequal. We examine public preferences in six European countries regarding the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines between the Global South and Global North.

Methods: We conducted online discrete choice experiments with adult participants in France (n=766), Germany (n=1964), Italy (n=767), Poland (n=670), Spain (n=925), and Sweden (n=938). Respondents were asked to decide which one of two candidates should receive the vaccine first. The candidates varied on four attributes: age, mortality risk, employment, and living in a low- or high-income country. We analysed the relevance of each attribute in allocation decisions using conditional logit regression.

Results: In all six countries, respondents prioritised candidates with a high mortality and infection risk, irrespective of whether the candidate lived in the respondent's own country. All else equal, respondents in Italy, France, Spain, and Sweden gave priority to a candidate from a low-income country, whereas German respondents were significantly more likely to choose the candidate from their own country. Female, younger, and more educated respondents were more favourable to an equitable vaccine distribution.

Conclusions: Given these preferences for global solidarity, European governments should promote vaccine transfers to poorer world regions.

Funding: Funding was provided by the European Union's Horizon H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101016233 (PERISCOPE).

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are made publicly available via the Open Science Framework under the following link: https://osf.io/72jrq/

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Janina I Steinert

    TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
    For correspondence
    janina.steinert@tum.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7120-0075
  2. Henrike Sternberg

    TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Giuseppe A Veltri

    Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9472-2236
  4. Tim Büthe

    TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4724-5000

Funding

Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (No 101016233 (PERISCOPE))

  • Janina I Steinert
  • Giuseppe A Veltri

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: The study received approvals from the ethics committees of the medical faculty at the Technical University of Munich (TUM, IRB 227/20 S) and the ethics board at the University of Trento (Trento, IRB 2021-027). Participants were given an individual link to the survey, where they first received information about the study's purpose, data protection regulations, and voluntary participation. All participants provided written electronic consent to participate in the study prior to commencing the survey. Personally identifying information such as names and contact details were not collected and data is thus fully anonymised. After completing the survey, participants received a voucher worth three to five Euros, which was distributed by the survey company.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Margaret Stanley, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Publication history

  1. Received: April 27, 2022
  2. Preprint posted: May 19, 2022 (view preprint)
  3. Accepted: October 3, 2022
  4. Accepted Manuscript published: October 18, 2022 (version 1)
  5. Version of Record published: October 24, 2022 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2022, Steinert et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Janina I Steinert
  2. Henrike Sternberg
  3. Giuseppe A Veltri
  4. Tim Büthe
(2022)
How should COVID-19 vaccines be distributed between the global north and south: a discrete choice experiment in six european countries
eLife 11:e79819.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79819

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