# Global Interdependence, Just Vaccine Allocation, and Compensatory Justice: A New Model

## TL;DR

The paper proposes a new vaccine distribution model that prioritizes low-to-middle income countries due to historical global inequalities and ethical considerations.

## Contribution

The novelty lies in integrating global interdependence and compensatory justice into vaccine allocation models.

## Key findings

- High-income countries have historically caused economic and ecological harms to low-to-middle income countries.
- Compensatory justice should influence vaccine distribution to address these historical harms.
- Prioritizing LMIC populations may be ethically required in vaccine allocation.

## Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, numerous models were offered for how scarce vaccine resources should be distributed. Proposed vaccine distribution models generally were divided between nationalist models, which give preference to nationals, and cosmopolitan models, which ignore national boundaries. More defensible international vaccine distribution program proposals incorporate ethical considerations from both cosmopolitanism and nationalist models. To date, however, proposed models have insufficiently considered how global interdependence has resulted in economic and ecological harms by high‐income countries (HICs) against low‐to‐middle income countries (LMICs). Because these harms create health burdens for the populations of LMICs, compensatory justice should impact distribution determinations. This paper argues that adequately factoring in global interdependence, compensatory justice, as well as the disproportionate impact of pandemics on LMICs, just vaccine distribution may require prioritizing LMIC populations over those of HICs.