Vaccines cannot be accessed by everyone immediately. So who deserves to access them more? This question is semi reminiscent of the trolley problem. What we’re dealing with here is also quite close to what engineers were discussing about self driving cars a few years back. If a car was quickly heading through a narrow road with no escape onto two people, what would it do? Which one would it kill? Would it sacrifice the driver to stop, and save both pedestrians? Statistics show, that most people would prefer crashing the car itself, animals, elders, and men. Should vaccines also come in an order of “Women, Youth, Humans, Pedestrians”? Maybe not this exact order, but we’re getting close. Interestingly, most also preferred saving doctors, fit people, and law abiders, showing the kind of people they would prefer in society.

I would show some disease statistics later on, but statistical error is important. For instance, there are only 20 reported Meningococcal B deaths in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The statistics may make it seem like Ouagadougou has great medical care, But this is actually caused by it only having a population of 2 million, most of which never talked to a WHO representative. Even worse for our result, Burkina Faso is the most Meningococcal B affected East African country.

So, going back to the order question, what else should be considered? Let’s see some data first. This is the spread of meningococcal in it’s origin, Africa. As you can see, our priority should center around african needs. For instance, a vaccine delivery to Melbourne would have much less priority than a vaccine delivery to Ouagadougou. Our priority form self driving cars still stands, the weakest and most vulnerable individuals should get the cure first.