Policy Coherence for Vaccine Production to Reduce Health Inequalities

Many efforts were made to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Such preventive measures, namely, social distancing, vaccination with foreign vaccines and supporting the domestic vaccine production, on-time diagnostic efforts and treatment of the infected put additional pressure on the health system and the country s budget. The COVID-19 crisis has subsided in the country recently, and now is the time to evaluate and review policies in various domains that were adopted during the crisis. Success in policies and implementation of programs is due to good governance which works in the context of a correct decision-making system. Moreover, efforts to reduce health inequality fall within this context. This note is written to emphasize the importance of policy coherence for the access of people to health through vaccination as a hot current issue in vaccination policymaking. Based on the country’s talented human resources and supporting knowledge-based companies, producing domestic vaccines seems to be a reasonable action that could be done through re-skilling or up-skilling as well as a partnership with pioneer companies. However at this point, one should evaluate and assess the outcomes and achievements of these policies and actions, especially in the field of domestic vaccine production. Moreover, the impact of cost-benefit ratio of such actions on the public health system should be evaluated for preparedness during the future pandemics.