Vaccine Rollouts by Country

The Guardian has mapped out the rollout of the Covid vaccine around the world to explore which countries have vaccinated faster and why some countries have been able to vaccinate their populations much faster than others. Which countries rolled out vaccines faster – and why includes two maps which visualize the rollout of vaccines around the globe.

The first map in The Guardian article uses data from Our World in Data to show the rate of the vaccine rollout in countries around the world over the last year. It shows the number of vaccine doses administered per 100 people over time. The second map in the article quickly tweens into a graph which plots country GDP against the number of people vaccinated in a country. This graph shows that  there is a clear correlation between a country's wealth and the rate and scope with which a country was able to rollout vaccinations. 

Wealthy countries, such as the UK and the USA, have in general managed to rollout vaccines more quickly and to more people than poorer countries. The Guardian suggests however that wealth is not the only factor in the speed and expanse of vaccine rollouts. Supply issues have also been a factor in vaccine rollouts. Some wealthier countries may have been able to afford to rollout nationwide vaccine programmes early on but were hampered by limited supplies. 

Over time supply issues have become less extreme and as a result some countries in the Asia-Pacific region have overtaken some European and North American countries in the percentage of the population vaccinated. However, as you can see from the map above, many countries in Africa still have very low levels of their populations vaccinated. This could be dangerous for the whole world. If some countries are left vulnerable to large Covid-19 outbreaks then new variants are more likely to develop. It is therefore clear that wealthier countries around the world have to do more in supporting poorer African countries both economically and through the supply of vaccines.