Managing the challenges associated with decreasing demand for COVID-19 vaccination in Central and West Asia

Abstract

Since the first administration of COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020, countries have experienced a range of challenges at different phases of their COVID-19 vaccination programmes. Initially, with limited global COVID-19 vaccine supply, the WHO called for vaccine equity to ensure the most vulnerable people in every country globally had access to vaccine, and COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access was established to facilitate equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine. However, the aims of these initiatives were challenged as many countries secured earlier access to COVID-19 vaccine with direct agreements with manufacturers. During the early stages of COVID-19 vaccination programmes, the rate of vaccine uptake was determined by number of COVID-19 vaccines approved for use and the manufacturing capacity of the manufacturers of these vaccines. It is a very different situation in 2022, where COVID-19 vaccination coverage is no longer determined by access to supply and manufacturers are reducing or stopping production of vaccines completely. Uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in 2022 is dependent on complex issues like vaccine hesitancy. This paper focuses on the Central and West Asia region, where the authors have been supporting COVID-19 vaccination programmes across seven countries in this region. In this paper, we outline and describe the different phases of demand for COVID-19 vaccination as well as the risks and strategies to consider in each of these phases.

COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose Acceptance: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…A noteworthy finding of the current review was the scarcity of reports addressing COVID-19 booster dose vaccine acceptance in the African region. Besides the issue of vaccine equity and vaccination hesitancy that hinder the successful implementation of vaccination campaigns in the continents, lack of studies can be considered another obstacle that should be addressed urgently [ 8 , 103 , 104 ].…”

COVID-19 vaccinology landscape in Africa

“…However, with pressing demand for vaccine access in the United States, Europe and other high income countries, which bought more than their needed vaccine supplies, marketing incentive to prioritize deployment of these vaccines in and for LMICs substantially decreased. The same situation happened in Central and West Asia ( 7 ) which in turn pushed the public health policy experts to demand a greater need for global solidarity in vaccine access ( 8 ). We believe that one solution to decisively and irreversibly address this gap is to shift the development and production of vaccines for Africa in Africa ( Figure 1 ).…”

Balancing Routine and Pandemic: The Synergy of India’s Universal Immunization Program and COVID-19 Vaccination Program

“…Any new vaccine introduction contributes to the overall system strengthening, ensuring the delivery of services. It provides an opportunity for training, capacity building, community sensitization, cold chain assessment, and programmatic improvements and scale-up [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. In recent years, India has introduced six new vaccines under the program, which made the system more robust and resilient and also supported the quick and successful rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program as well as recovering routine immunization services immediately after the pandemic.…”