Aaron S Kesselheim, Columnist

To Ensure Access to Covid Vaccines, Demand a Fair Price

After the federal government is no longer buying all the doses, it will need to see that patients and insurers aren’t overcharged.

January 22, 2021 at 1:30 PM UTC

By Aaron S Kesselheim

Aaron S. Kesselheim is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

A small bottle that needs a small pricetag.
Photographer: SHANNON STAPLETON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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As the rollout of vaccines to protect against Covid-19 proceeds, Americans may begin to glimpse the pandemic’s end. It’s not possible to bring the coronavirus under control, however, until vaccines are accessible to everyone. For the moment, that is largely a logistical challenge. Price has not been a major obstacle, because the U.S. government has contracts to buy from the manufacturers all the doses they’ve been able to provide.

These purchases are only a start, however. The shots that the government has contracts to procure are unlikely to be enough for the whole population, even on the first pass. And questions remain about how long immunity will last and whether the virus will continue to evolve. Additional shots may well be required in years ahead, like the annual influenza vaccine.