With lives, resources, and patience on the line, the global COVID-19 vaccine distribution process is the performance of a lifetime with no opportunity — or time — for rehearsals. The conductor at the center of it all is the World Health Organization (WHO), serving at once as medical encyclopedia, regulator, and policymaker.

“This vaccine introduction program is unlike any ever before in any country around the world,” said Dr. Katherine O’Brien, WHO’s director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. “There is no program like this in its speed, its dimension, its worldwide, simultaneous nature.”

A few months into the pandemic, WHO developed a target product profile guide, outlining the minimum attributes of a safe, effective vaccine candidate. Currently, more than 200 vaccine candidates are being developed and tested around the world, but not all of them meet WHO’s science-driven prerequisites for controlling the pandemic. In addition to the target profile, the vaccine candidates — tested in different labs and evaluated by varying regulators around the world — have to meet rigorous safety requirements to receive WHO’s final stamp of approval, vouching for their efficacy, safety, and quality.

Even while WHO diligently works to ensure that vaccines are safe and effective for public use, many people are hesitant for a variety of reasons including worries about side effects; the unprecedented speed with which the vaccines have come online; and confusion due to an ever-shifting information landscape, much of it filled with conspiracy theories and misinformation.

In other cases, people are worried about getting the vaccine because of mistrust. In the United States, for example, the virus has had a disproportionate impact on some racial minorities, with data showing outsized rates of illness and death among certain demographics compared with their share of the population. Existing vaccine hesitancy is fueled by mistrust in medical institutions, rooted in centuries of racial inequality compounded by ongoing structural inequalities in health access, education, and wealth, leading to poor health outcomes.

To address inequities such as these across countries globally, international organizations are working on restoring trust in science and health institutions. In its Verified initiative, for example, the United Nations encourages the public to pause before circulating unconfirmed information. It also released a communications guide with tips on how to help communities overcome vaccine hesitancy and to cultivate their trust in the process.

Read the full article about global COVID-19 vaccination distribution by Sarah Alaoui at United Nations Foundation.