On August 4th, the World Health Organization(WHO) halted on Covid19 vaccine boosters as differences in the number of vaccinated people are widening between wealthy and poor countries.

According to WHO, high-income countries had 50 people vaccinated among every 100 people, while low-income countries were only able to afford 1.5 doses among every 100 people. With severe shortage in the supply of Covid-19 vaccines compared to the demand around the world, WHO aims to reverse the situation and provide the majority of the vaccines to low-income countries rather than high-income countries.

We can see how much WHO signifies equity as they have announced that “vaccinating healthy adults with a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines is a short-sighted way of thinking”. 

This is a great example of key concepts in the economy. Because scarcity exists where there are limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants, choices are forced to be made with a big question in mind: “For whom to produce?”. In this situation, WHO had decided to target low-income countries to support the majority and satisfy their needs. Them giving up on the profit they could have earned by selling the vaccines more expensive to the wealthy would be an opportunity cost. And this regulation that restricts the wealthy countries from getting vaccinated would be a type of intervention for their goal and the benefit of the society as a whole. Like this, everyday situations and problems incorporate the economy. It’s the reason why everyone has to study economy for daily understanding and development in society.  

#WHO #Covid19 #Vaccines #2021 #Economy #Scarcity #Supply and Demand #Shortage #Equity #Opportunity cost #Income 

Sadie Kim (rkim2025@chadwickschool.org)