TY - JOUR T1 - We need people’s WHO to solve vaccine inequity, and we need it now JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006598 VL - 6 IS - 7 SP - e006598 AU - Hani Kim Y1 - 2021/07/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/6/7/e006598.abstract N2 - Summary boxCurrent production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as a global public good has failed on equity.The task of solving global vaccine inequity presents us an opportunity to build better global governance and decision-making mechanism over vaccine production and distribution to assure sustainability and equity between and within countries.Solving vaccine inequity requires sharing the control and ownership over generating and distributing vaccines, beyond reallocating vaccine doses or building new manufacturing facilities in low- and middle-income countries.Losing sight of the unequal power relations undergirding vaccine inequity would leave us at the risk of having the global vaccine production and distribution shaped by a handful of powerful nations, multinational corporations, and private philanthropies.People’s WHO represents our best framework within which governments with limited resources and power can collectively negotiate for the interests of their populations as the global majority.As of 9 April 2021, of more than 700 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally, only 0.2% have gone to low-income countries, with over 87% gone to high income countries (HICs) or upper middle-income countries.1 COVAX was established to pool demands and funds among countries to collectively negotiate an affordable price for the vaccine with vaccine manufacturers.2 The aspiration was to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines regardless of countries’ income level. This aspiration failed. COVAX’s collective purchasing power was outcompeted by governments who had greater means to pay and purchased directly from vaccine manufacturers outside COVAX. Consequently, global COVID-19 vaccine supply was left to competition among countries based on their ability to pay rather than public health needs in what can be termed ‘survival of the wealthiest’.In recognition of the vaccine inequity, civil society actors, governments of wealthy nations (eg, G7, G20) and multilateral agencies have called for redistributing excess doses from HICs to low-income middle-income countries (LMICs), … ER -