One in four people globally may not get COVID-19 vaccines until 2022 - (National Post via NewsPoints Desk)

• New research suggests that almost one in four people may not get COVID-19 vaccines until at least 2022 because wealthy countries have reserved 51% of the doses of the most promising candidates, as reported in the National Post.

• According to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, low- and middle-income countries, which are home to more than 85% of the world's population, would have to share the remainder.

• As of November 15, high-income nations had pre-ordered nearly 7.5 billion doses of vaccines from 13 manufacturers, the paper said, adding this includes Japan, Australia and Canada which collectively have more than 1 billion doses, but accounted for less than 1% of current novel coronavirus cases.

• An effective response to the pandemic requires high-income countries "to share in an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world," the researchers wrote.

• They added that "the uncertainty over global access to COVID-19 vaccines traces not only to ongoing clinical testing, but also from the failure of governments and vaccine manufacturers to be more transparent and accountable over these arrangements."

• The researchers suggested that the WHO's COVAX Facility could play a key role in ensuring fairer access to approved vaccines, but it has only secured 500 million doses, far below its target of delivering at least 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.

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