Global Interdependence, Just Vaccine Allocation, and Compensatory Justice

A New Model

Bibliographic Data

ID19516554
AuthorsKalen J Fredette (Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume26
Issue1
Pages17-22
Publication date2026-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDeveloping World Bioethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1471-8731 • E-ISSN: 1471-8847
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dewb.12486
PMID40483724
OpenAlexW4411126814
LanguageEN
References cited11

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, numerous models were offered for how scarce vaccine resources should be distributed. Proposed vaccine distribution models generally were divided between nationalist models, which give preference to nationals, and cosmopolitan models, which ignore national boundaries. More defensible international vaccine distribution program proposals incorporate ethical considerations from both cosmopolitanism and nationalist models. To date, however, proposed models have insufficiently considered how global interdependence has resulted in economic and ecological harms by high‐income countries (HICs) against low‐to‐middle income countries (LMICs). Because these harms create health burdens for the populations of LMICs, compensatory justice should impact distribution determinations. This paper argues that adequately factoring in global interdependence, compensatory justice, as well as the disproportionate impact of pandemics on LMICs, just vaccine distribution may require prioritizing LMIC populations over those of HICs

Cosmopolitanism · Development economics · Disease · Distributive justice · Economic Justice · Economics · Factoring · Global health · Global justice · Health care · Nationalism · Pandemic · Political science · Public economics · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Global Security and Public Health · Health and Conflict Studies · Law · Medicine

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