AVAILABILITY OF VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19: WORLD EXPERIENCE AND THE SITUATION IN BELARUS

Abstract

The conditions that affect the availability of COVID-19 vaccination are listed. A brief description of the leading COVID-19 vaccines and their manufacturers is given. An analysis of the current access to COVID-19 vaccines as well as to routine vaccination globally and in Belarus is presented. The ways to increase access to vaccines are considered: the WHO-recommended mechanism of emergency use authorization of vaccines and its implementation in Belarus, the COVAX mechanism to ensure equal access to vaccines throughout the countries with different income level, grading the priority of providing vaccines to certain categories of the people, as well as lowering the services threshold. Projected ongoing needs of COVID-19 vaccines are discussed, as well as the prospects of further use the experience of combating the pandemic (including developed new technological platforms for the production of vaccines, accelerated launch of vaccines on the market, cross-country cooperation) in solving other challenges in the field of medicine, including eliminating the global shortage of routine vaccines.