3 ms·

If the vaccine is free, why would anyone need to sell it on?

• dragontamer 5y ago
  The US government made it free to citizens. But nothing is actually free. When some nation donates 1-million doses, there will be a market value for those doses: maybe $20 million for the batch or so. It's not even black market vs grey market. This is just standard market economies between nations.
• admax88qqq 5y ago
  People will pay to skip the queue, which creates a perverse incentive to hoard and limit distribution to incentive paying. Corrupt officials receiving free vaccine shipments could very well do this.
• pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  I assumed we wouldn't be able to supply 100% of the globe at the same instant, maybe we'd distribute ~20% in a first wave (to the most vulnerable people). That means that those who are rich[er] but don't meet the criteria are going to be in a position to want to buy. If the country/county/area/suburb next door is poor, and a locality has lots of cases then I'm guessing anyone who can afford it has an incentive to acquire a dose of vaccine early, or a booster dose, by buying out someone in that neighbouring locality. You need strong local government without corruption to distribute vaccines fairly.