Abstract
COVID-19 vaccines were developed amid the global outbreak of the disease. Several countries attempted to secure these new vaccines in sufficient quantities to cover their entire populations. To address the global gap in vaccination, various countries donated vaccines directly and through international frameworks such as the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access. While previous studies have discussed the diplomatic and geopolitical impact of these vaccines, this study attempts to analyze the situation from an Asian perspective, employing a quantitative analysis including cluster analysis and GIS, which is a novel approach. We analyzed the COVID-19 vaccine donation data from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. We considered the perspective of recipient countries, and the status of donations among donor countries within Asia and by Japan, the United States, China, and India, which exert a considerable influence in Asia. In the analysis of recipient countries, the study identified countries with unstable political and economic backgrounds and strong ties to China, such as Myanmar and Cambodia. China emerged as the top donor in Asia; interestingly, Cambodia, which is the second largest recipient of China’s vaccines, also provides aid to neighboring countries. A comparative analysis of Japan, the United States, China, and India indicated that the characteristics of donors and recipients and methods of donation differed for each country.
