Vaccine inequity increases the risk of new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerging

Robust genomic surveillance, along with transparency, communication, and global collaboration, is needed to detect and control emerging variants.

To control the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) called on member states to meet a goal of vaccinating 40% of their population by the end of 2021. As of mid December 2021, over 8.6 billion doses have been administered globally. Unfortunately, the distribution of vaccines has been far from uniform, with the percentage of populations fully vaccinated ranging from more than 90% to less than 1%. (author introduction)