What makes people donate towards COVID-19 Vaccines?

Simon Finster, Michelle González Amador, and Edwin Lock gather to conduct an experiment about what makes people donate towards COVID-19 vaccines. Read about their project at this link.

Many countries cannot afford or access vaccines and rely on donations or surpluses from richer countries. Vaccine inequity endangers the health and livelihood of communities around the globe, as 91.7% of the population in resource-poor countries did not receive at least one dose in 2021.

While pledging some support for access to vaccines for resource-poor countries, most resource-rich countries ordered twice the number of vaccine doses needed for their population, and global supply is constrained.

Equitable vaccine distribution reduces not only the number of deaths and economic hardship associated with COVID-19 isolation measures, but also the occurrence of viral mutations that prolong the pandemic and destabilize health advances.

Vaccine redistribution makes sense both from an altruistic and a self-interested perspective. Their study aims to understand how these motives influence individuals’ willingness to donate.

Our members will conduct an online experiment to determine influencing factors on vaccine sharing behaviour of individuals in resource-rich countries. They want to investigate how providing narrated information on the current global health situation affects people’s willingness to donate towards vaccine equity.

Their goal is to develop guidance for the design of a global vaccination strategy, supported by data on individual sharing behaviour. Ultimately, they wish to lay a foundation for policy and outreach.