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A survey led by Nuffield Department of Population Health's Health Economics Research Centre has found that most people in high-income countries support donating some of their country’s COVID-19 vaccine supplies to low-income nations who would otherwise struggle to gain access.

Syringe and vaccine vial

Researchers conducted an anonymous online survey which had over 8,000 respondents across seven high-income countries (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, UK and the USA). The survey was carried out between 24 November and 28 December 2020, when an effective vaccine was expected to soon be available. The findings are published today in Nature Medicine.

The study’s main findings were:

  • For each country assessed, the number of people who supported donating vaccines was at least double those who did not. Support for donating vaccines ranged from 48–56%, whilst 15–26% did not support donating vaccines and 22–28% were undecided.
  • Of those who supported vaccine donations, most (73–81%) favoured an amount greater than or equal to 10% of their country’s doses.
  • When asked how much they agreed with three prioritisation principles for global vaccine distribution, the highest-ranking principle for each country was need, with average agreement ranging from 70–80 (where 0 means very much disagree and 100 means very much agree). This was followed by prioritising countries which could not afford to buy vaccines otherwise (62–70 average agreement), and finally whether the country itself had developed the vaccine (28–58 average agreement).

Read the full story on theNuffield Department of Population Health website

The story is also featured on the University of Oxford website.