Special Issue: The COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccination strategies and global health policies

For over two years since the WHO announced the coronavirus outbreak, countries around the world have responded differently to the pandemic [1]. These responses included, inter alia, lockdowns, mobilizing the healthcare workforce, and economic stimuli. In mid-2020, a new tool for responding to the pandemic emerged: COVID-19 vaccinations. It provided fresh hope for nations to address the pandemic, alleviate the pressure on health systems, ease social restrictions, and partially recover national and global economies. This Special Issue focuses on the COVID-19 vaccination strategies used to respond to the pandemic in 19 countries. The Special Issue follows on from the Special Issue “The COVID-19 pandemic: Global health policy and technology responses in the making” [2]. It provides country-specific papers and general COVID-19 vaccine research papers. The different authors provide an analysis of national vaccination strategies and explore the intersection with health outcomes, lockdown measures, mitigation policies, and health service utilization. The articles document the evolution of vaccine strategies, pandemic policies, and technology responses through attention to the timeliness of vaccination rollouts. Furthermore, the articles address the emerging barriers for particular populations often reflecting vaccine hesitancy and adaptations to the policies linked to the changing dynamics of COVID-19.

The vaccination strategies varied worldwide due to differences in the acquisition, rollout, organization, and structure of health systems, government prioritization plans, political trust, and vaccine hesitancy. The vaccination strategies were also guided by the pre-existing national COVID-19 mitigation policies and available technology. This Special Issue provides insights into the drivers of the vaccination strategies by documenting the:

• •Country context and health system
• •Pre-existing COVID-19 policies
• •The time period: From the date of the first vaccine rollout (December 2020 for many western countries) to September 2021

Country-specific papers in this Special Issue draw on a vast amount of scientific literature and COVID-19 data collected by governments and international organizations. Nineteen different countries are included in this Special Issue, representing a wide spectrum of health and political systems (see Table 1 ). The country-specific papers provide valuable understandings of the COVID-19 epidemiological trends during the period of observation and the consequences of variation in policy decisions taken by national governments, the impact of international relations on the availability and access to vaccines on mortality, levels of infection, and national economies. Furthermore, the Special Issue includes general vaccine research and emphasizes key historical factors that shaped the development of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. In addition, the Special Issue sheds light on the COVID-19 counterfeit vaccines and the migrant inclusion in the vaccination rollout strategies.

Table 1.

Countries covered in this Special Issue.

Australia	Denmark	Israel	South Korea
Austria	Finland	Italy	Spain
Canada	France	Japan	Switzerland
China	Germany	Norway	United States of America
Colombia	India	Singapore

Countries covered in the Special Issue display various similarities and differences in their COVID-19 vaccination strategies. The analyses in the articles demonstrate that for most countries the introduction and expansion of vaccination programs improved health outcomes in terms of hospitalizations, morbidity, and mortality, and therefore, relieved the pressure on health systems. Moreover, the expansion of the vaccination rollout allowed several countries to gradually open up and adopt less restrictive policies, which may also have a positive long-term effect on their economies. The country-specific papers also document the differences in the timing of national vaccination programs, the type of vaccines adopted, prioritization criteria, and removal of social restrictions. Nevertheless, the analyses also show the importance of other factors that influenced the success of COVID-19 vaccination strategies. For instance, both (de)politicization and trust in the state played an important role in supporting vaccination strategies while health literacy and vaccine hesitancy were drivers for changes in vaccination strategy.

Through the analyses provided in this Special Issue, we provide a collage of the vaccination strategies in countries that not only have different health, social, and political systems, but also different timelines in relation to both the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout. The Special Issue provides an analytical framework useful in considering the interrelationship between the vaccination programs and any future pandemics or further waves of COVID-19. The scope of this Special Issue is relevant given the time-sensitive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic as we observe disparities in the rollout programs between developed and developing economies worldwide. The Special Issue offers potential lessons to inform future research and policy. Finally, by observing the differences in the timeliness and access to COVID-19 vaccines, the Special Issue presents a challenge on how collectively the international community can devise stronger international borderless cooperation around both strategic and pharmaceutical responses so that together we can decrease disparities in the face of global risks (such as pandemics) that have little respect for international borders.