How will the vaccine be shared fairly around the world?

Governments, including in the UK, are being questioned about how they will get to the front of the queue. How will any eventual vaccine be shared out? Who decides? Will supplies go to the highest bidder? Are rich nations buying up potential vaccines already? And what will stop governments from simply seizing vaccines made in their country?

Amid the swine flu outbreak in 2009, the Australian government ordered a vaccine manufacturer to meet its demand before fulfilling orders overseas. That November, after several rich nations had secured vaccines, officials from the World Health Organization aired concerns that disaster could lie ahead.

According to experts and industry, it will take at least a year to vaccinate the world from the moment vaccines become available. That's a 12-month queue, if things go well – after a vaccine is found. "The reality is that there is no process established for this," says Steven Jones, a Canadian member of a team that created a successful Ebola vaccine.

In December 2006, the Indonesian authorities refused to hand over samples of the bird flu virus without guarantees that it would benefit from any vaccine produced from them.

The potential problems have been spotted. On April 24, 2020, a parade of world leaders, charity bosses and industry chiefs, including French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and philanthropist Melinda Gates, united to back a WHO initiative to ensure any treatments and vaccines are shared equitably around the world. Dominic Raab also supported it. Yet just as notable were the nations not in attendance – the US, China, Russia and India.