What will it cost to end the pandemic?

ON MAY 2NDVAXIMF thousands of masked nurses, doctors and others who have battled against covid-19 watched Jennifer Lopez and other stars perform in the flesh at the “ live” concert in Los Angeles. Outside the venue, visitors could get their jab from the comfort of their own vehicles, while watching H.E.R., a singer-songwriter, perform the song “Glory” in the car park, surrounded by schoolkids stomping their feet. A live concert was possible only because many Americans (50% of adults) are now vaccinated. But a charity event of this kind was necessary only because most of the world is not.What would it take to close the gap? In a paper published in April, Ruchir Agarwal of the and Tristan Reed of the World Bank argued that it might be possible to end the “acute phase” of the pandemic early next year by vaccinating 60% of the population of every country. Will there be enough shots to go round? In principle, yes. According to Airfinity, a life-sciences data firm, vaccine-makers could produce as many as 11.1bn doses this year, enough to inoculate more than 75% of the world’s population aged over five. The manufacturers themselves say they will produce many more.