Overview
This document presents comprehensive, ethics-based considerations to guide national decisions on allocating pandemic products such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Drawing on lessons from past pandemics, including COVID-19, it outlines how countries can design fair, transparent, and effective allocation systems that balance equity, efficiency, reciprocity, procedural fairness and other ethical principles. The document also considers key trade-offs, identifies unethical practices to avoid, and provides practical guidance on operationalizing allocation through data-driven criteria, governance mechanisms, monitoring and evaluation, and contingency planning. Overall, it offers a roadmap for building resilient, adaptable allocation approaches that promote health equity and maximize public health impact during pandemics.
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WHO TEAM
Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention (EPP)
REFERENCE NUMBERS
ISBN: 9789240117884 (electronic version) 9789240117891 (print version)