Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Rationing COVID-19 Vaccines Amidst Extreme Scarcity: A Qualitative Study
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Square
Abstract
In the context of scarce health-resources robust priority setting for access to existing
interventions is critical for at least two reasons: ensuring efficient use of resources, and equitable access
to existing interventions. This need is more urgent, and its achievement more intractable in severely
resource-constrained health systems, of Low and Middle Income Countries, such as Uganda. COVID-19
pandemic and the resulting need for large-scale and immediate vaccination amidst extreme scarcity of
vaccines in Uganda necessitated an exploration of stakeholders’ perspectives on the country’s priority
setting for access to COVID-19 vaccines. We aimed at exploring stakeholders’ perspectives on priority
setting for COVID-19 vaccination in Ugandan.
Methods: We conducted key informant and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the COVID-19
intervention including public health experts, clinicians, policy makers, human rights experts, bioethicists,
legal fraternity, biomedical scientists and members from the general public. Stakeholders’ views were
sought on the status of official guidelines for rationing COVID-19 vaccines; who they thought should get
priority for vaccination and why; and what the process of setting such priorities should involve. Data were
transcribed and analysed thematically using NVivo software (QSR international 2020).
Results: There was concern about lack of clarity regarding context-specific guidance on priorities COVID-
19 vaccination. This concern was corroborated by the fact that national guidelines for COVID-19
vaccination are still in draft form and inaccessible to the public. Regarding who should get priority and
why, dominant views indicated more concern for efficiency-cum-effectiveness at controlling the spread of
the virus, although further probing revealed that some of these views were partly motivated by equity
concerns. Most respondents felt that the process of developing the needed guidelines should have
employed a bottom-up approach involving rigorous community engagement.
Description
Keywords
health-resources, COVID-19, vaccination, Uganda
Citation
Barugahare, J., Kwagala, B., & Ochieng, J. (2021). Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Rationing COVID-19 Vaccines Amidst Extreme Scarcity: A Qualitative Study. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-888025/v1