A global shortage of vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic raised difficult questions about how they should be distributed, and international mechanisms ultimately failed to achieve an equitable distribution during the emergency. Professor Renu Singh analyzes why this inequity occurred and how the situation could be improved in the future. She argues that power inequalities among key actors in global health politics caused an overemphasis on mechanisms to voluntarily distribute existing vaccine supplies relative to mechanisms for sharing knowledge and legally expanding vaccine production. In addition, she draws on original survey data from Italy, Germany, and the United States to provide insights into which vaccine equity policies people support and the kinds of messages that are likely to strengthen approval for vaccine sharing.

Renu Singh is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and the Program Director for the MSc in Public Policy at Durham University. She is also the chair of the International Studies Association’s Global Health Section. Her research interests include public health policy, global health security and governance, comparative social policy, and sustainability, and her work has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Social Science & Medicine, and BMJ Global Health, among others.