新冠病毒疫苗国际公平分配为何难以实现?

Why is International Equitable Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines Difficult to Achieve?

本文使用历史制度主义的分析工具,回溯了全球疫苗与免疫治理领域国际制度的演进过程,并讨论了当前新冠病毒疫苗全球获取机制COVAX为何治理绩效不佳。COVAX的制度设计具有明显的路径依赖特点,承袭了全球疫苗与免疫联盟(GAVI)创造性利用市场机制、激励疫苗生产的做法。21世纪以来,这种安排成为全球疫苗与免疫问题上的主导机制。它虽然能够在一定程度上解决因发展中国家需求上升而加剧的全球疫苗供需失衡问题,但客观上也导致了国际疫苗生产的集中化。在新冠肺炎大流行中,这一制度受到疫苗生产能力有限以及疫苗民族主义的挑战,成功运作的前提被破坏,因此无法完全实现新冠病毒疫苗国际公平分配的目标。

Following the approach of historical institutionalism, this paper traces the evolution of international institutions in the field of global vaccine and immunization governance, and discusses why the current international equitable distribution mechanism of COVID-19 vaccines, COVAX, has poor governance performance.The design of COVAX is clearly path-dependent, following the GAVI Alliance’s model, which utilizes market mechanisms to stimulate vaccine production. While GAVI’s arrangement was able to address the global imbalance between vaccine supply and demand to some extent, it also led to a further geographic concentration of international vaccine production. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this system was challenged by vaccine nationalism and demonstrated vulnerability in achieving its aim of international equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.