When there is a coronavirus vaccine, who will receive it first in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Who would be the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine?

Probably people in the country where the first effective vaccine is developed.

About a dozen different vaccines are in various stages of testing worldwide, including in Britain, China, and the US This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading US infectious disease expert. He said he is cautiously optimistic that there will be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021.

Several wealthy countries have already ordered millions of doses of these experimental vaccines.

Britain and the United States, for example, have invested in a candidate vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and produced by AstraZeneca. If it works, UK politicians have said the British will be vaccinated with it. The United States hopes to start storing it this fall and has also invested in other candidate vaccines.

Groups including the GAVI vaccine alliance are also working to buy doses for poor countries, and AstraZeneca has agreed to license its vaccine to the Indian Whey Institute for the production of one billion doses. The World Health Organization is developing guidelines for the ethical distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

How vaccines are distributed within a country will vary. Last week, US officials said they were developing a tiered system for that. The system would likely prioritize groups at highest risk for serious complications from COVID-19 and key workers.