## picture-this-covid-19

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [picture-this-covid-19](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2021/december/picture-this-covid-19.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2021/december/picture-this-covid-19.pdf.md)
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### From lab to jab
- 1882: Dr. Robert Koch discovered the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB).
- 1921: A vaccine for TB was developed; it offers only moderate protection against severe TB in infants and young children.
- "No vaccine effectively prevents TB in adults, and the disease claims 1.5 million lives a year."
- COVID-19 timeline in contrast:
  - "COVID-19 was identified in January, 2020."
  - "By December 2 of that year a vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer was approved for emergency use in the United States."
- Exceptional public financing and regulatory support for COVID-19 vaccine research, development, testing, and manufacturing accelerated the vaccine development process compared with historical vaccines (examples listed in the chart include Malaria, Tuberculosis*, Meningitis, Whooping cough, Dengue fever, Polio, Zika fever, Chickenpox, Measles, Hepatitis, Ebola, Cervical cancer (HPV), COVID-19, Typhoid fever, AIDS (HIV) with years of disease link and year licensed in the US noted in the graphic).
- Note from source: "*The only vaccine against tuberculosis is bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), but there is no effective vaccine to prevent tuberculosis in adults. There is a partially effective vaccine against Dengue virus (CYD-TDV). Not all cervical cancers are caused by the HPV virus, but the HPV vaccine does protect against other cancers caused by the HPV virus. The hepatitis vaccine in the chart is for hepatitis B."

### Shooting up (global vaccination progress)
- Timeline axis in figure: Dec-20, Feb-21, Apr-21, Jun-21, Aug-21, Nov-21.
- "Dec. 14, 2020: The first COVID-19 vaccine dose is administered to the public in the United States."
- "About one year down and 40% of the world is now vaccinated."
- Figure series: Share of world population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 annotated at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and separate line for "World excl. China".
- Source and update: "Source: Our World in Data. Last updated November 10, 2021."

### The journey of the COVID-19 vaccine — challenges ahead
- High-level progress:
  - "The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been miraculous."
  - "The challenge now is to immunize the world and continue to conquer new variants."
  - "Total vaccination rates have risen and continue to rise rapidly."
- Key concerns:
  - Targets: global vaccination target of "40 percent in every country by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022."
  - Disconnect between secured/contracted doses and doses actually delivered and at port.
    - Example: "COVAX, which delivers vaccines to developing economies, has contracted and received donation pledges for over 3 billion doses, but only about 440 million of those have been received so far."
  - Resulting inequity:
    - "High-income countries have vaccination rates exceeding 65 percent, while many low-income countries barely top 3 percent."
  - Subnational inequities and demand-side obstacles:
    - "Uneven distribution of vaccine coverage" at subnational level (example map: "Subnational—population fully vaccinated in India by district (percent of population)").
    - Once near-term supply is addressed, "demand and vaccine hesitancy may become the next big obstacle for developing countries."

### A tale of three worlds — data snapshots
- Picture categories and data update notes:
  - Picture 1: "Secured vaccines and/or expected vaccine supply (percent of population)" — updated as of November 5.
  - Picture 2: "Vaccine coverage—at least one dose administered (percent of population)" — updated as of November 9.
  - Picture 3: "Subnational—population fully vaccinated in India by district (percent of population)" — updated as of October 26.
- Sources for these pictures: "CoWIN; IMF Staff Proposal to End the COVID-19 Pandemic; Our World in Data; and IMF staff calculations."
- Note: "Country borders do not necessarily reflect the IMF’s official position."

### Policy implications and priorities (implicit in text)
- Prioritize immediate deliveries to developing economies with low vaccination rates to close the gap between contracted doses and doses received.
- Address subnational distribution bottlenecks to ensure equitable coverage within countries.
- Prepare for demand-side interventions to combat vaccine hesitancy once supply constraints ease.

*Source: picture-this-covid-19 (Finance & Development, December 2021).*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2021/december/picture-this-covid-19.pdf_