Just four months since the WHO (World Health Organization) announced the use of the first COVID-19 vaccine, there is already one billion doses available as of late April 2021. This is a huge feat for mankind, especially since it only took one year to roll out the vaccine and 16 months to reach one billion doses. The previous fastest vaccine developed was the mumps vaccine in 1967, which took four years to develop. Nevertheless, there is an unequal distribution of the 7.3% of the people who have received the vaccine, and virologists suggest that 75% of the population should get vaccinated to control the pandemic.
 
According to Nature, 80% of the doses given so far belong to 10 nations, with United States, China and India leading the pack, and followed by United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, France and Indonesia. Both United States and China have had more doses administered than any of the 8 remaining countries on the list combined. Nevertheless, total number of doses administered may not be the most useful piece of information, since every country has a different population.
 
To end this pandemic, scientists highlight the importance of having a high percentage of people immunized. Israel is the country with highest percentage of population with at least one vaccine dose. It has a 62.2% vaccine rate, followed by Bhutan (61.7%), the Maldives (53.4%), the United Arab Emirates (51.4%), the United Kingdom (49.6%), Malta (48%), the United States (41.8%), Chile (41.6%), Bahrain (38.8%) and Hungary (37.3%).
 
What I hope we all have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that everyone needs to cooperate to stop the spread of dangerous viruses. Even though we can start feeling a little more hopeful, let’s remind ourselves that more than 90% of the global population still needs to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, according to WHO officials, the 2 billion doses administered should happen faster…
 
Borja Barbero Barcenilla is a doctoral student in the Department of Biochemistry.