Abstract
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has as of yet received little attention from geographers. This chapter seeks to look at the spatial aspects of the vaccine distribution, starting with a review of previous vaccination campaigns, then looking at the various types of COVID-19 vaccine. Paying attention to issues of disparities in access, this chapter investigates the U.S. rollout as well as that of other countries. A look is also taken into the emerging vaccine diplomacy, as well as the international program COVAX designed to help distribute the vaccine. This chapter finds that the U.S. vaccine rollout is flawed with people of color more likely to experience difficultly in receiving the vaccine. It is also a spatially uneven rollout, with states distributing vaccine at varying rates across the country. The U.S. response on the international stage also faces some difficulty, with states such as China and Russia pulling ahead in the field of vaccine diplomacy at the expense of American influence abroad.
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Johnson, S.J. (2022). Vaccination Nation: Vaccine Diplomacy and the U.S. Vaccine Rollout. In: Brunn, S.D., Gilbreath, D. (eds) COVID-19 and a World of Ad Hoc Geographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94350-9_26
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