Ensuring everyone, everywhere, has access to COVID-19 vaccines has never been an easy feat.

First, the world held its collective breath to see whether a vaccine would even be possible. Next, questions around the speed of vaccine production, the availability of cold storage infrastructure and the inevitable issue of costs came into play.

Now, in the weeks after the second anniversary of the pandemic, some of the most considerable challenges stem around conflict, politics, religion, misinformation, complacency and mistrust. Below, we unpack why, when many of the previous challenges have been addressed, some nations in the Pacific continue to have dismally low jab rates.

  • Vaccine hesitancy: The Lowy Institute, Australia’s premier foreign-policy think-tank, has predicted that some countries in the Pacific could take years to vaccinate even a third of their population, an assertion made after factoring in current rates of vaccine hesitancy per country.
  • The number of available health workers: Adequate vaccine coverage requires sufficient availability of logistical and medical workers. Without employees to support the supply chain and distribution, vaccines cannot get into countries and cities. Likewise, without health care workers, vaccines cannot get into arms.
  • Rural populations: The way citizens are spread throughout a country, and the topography of said country, can also largely impact the speed and success of local vaccine rollouts. For example, many Pacific nations are archipelagos, with residents often spread out across the many islands, making getting vaccines to thousands of remote villages difficult.
  • Complacency: A recent report from The Royal Society and The British Academy backs Chi’s comment, explaining that the absence of diseases can often bring a false sense of security to people. Their study proved that people are less likely to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they feel they are at a low risk of catching the virus in the first place.

Read the full article about systemic barriers to COVID-19 vaccine access by Madeleine Keck at Global Citizen.