Educator Guide: Vaccine Inequity Will Prolong Pandemic

March 27, 2021

AstraZeneca vaccine — COVAX, the international initiative to vaccinate the globe more equitably, made its first shipment of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine (shown) on February 24 to Ghana.

MARC BRUXELLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

About this guide

In this guide, students will learn about challenges in vaccinating the world against COVID-19. Then, students will discuss the possible effects of varying vaccination rates on local and global scales.

This Guide Includes:

Counting on COVID-19 vaccines

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “Global inequity in COVID-19 vaccination is more than a moral problem,” which explores the scientific and economic impacts of the failure to fairly distribute vaccines globally. A version of the story, “Vaccine inequity will prolong pandemic,” appears in the March 27, 2021 issue of Science News.

Global problem solving gets personal

Students will think about how communities connect on local and global scales through the lens of COVID-19 vaccine distribution and consider why global collaboration in STEM is crucial for solving some large-scale issues.

A fair shot

Students will analyze a graph to identify inequities in COVID-19 vaccine access among nations based on wealth, discuss how affluence affects access to and distribution of vaccines as well as how disparities in vaccine distribution affect global pandemic recovery. Students will then work in groups to research COVID-19 vaccine access and distribution in their state or local area, identify potential inequities in vaccine access and distribution and construct a graph of their own.