In a paper simply revealed in Communications Drugs, Inhabitants Europe skilled Pieter Vanhuysse (College of Southern Denmark), Adam Lampert (The Hebrew College of Jerusalem), Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan (The Hebrew College) and Markus Tepe (College of Oldenburg) have developed a rich-to-poor vaccine donation sport to reply the strategic query of vaccine distribution that’s key to world well being.

Since pandemics resembling COVID-19 don’t cease at nationwide borders, richer international locations would possibly profit from serving to poorer international locations in preventing them. For example, when new variants of a virus emerge in vaccine-poor international locations, it might generally be within the curiosity of vaccine-rich international locations to donate their surplus vaccines, somewhat than stocking them domestically.

The researchers present that if vaccine-rich international locations can collectively vaccinate a sufficiently giant share of the vaccine-poor world, it’s truly the most effective plan of action from their very own viewpoint to donate all of their surplus vaccines, no matter how possible it’s that new variants of the virus will happen later. Even when vaccine-rich international locations can not attain this excessive degree of poor-world protection, donating a few of their surplus vaccines remains to be the most effective plan of action in a particular set of circumstances concerning the chance of latest variants and the price of future outbreaks.

These outcomes supply onerous foundations for modest hope about win-win world pandemic cooperation. They present {that a} slim hall of circumstances exists beneath which strict self-interest alone, with out recourse to different motivations resembling “worldwide solidarity” or “vaccine diplomacy,” will make vaccine-rich international locations assist the vaccine-poor world in preventing world pandemics.

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