Will the Covid-19 Vaccine Be a Public Good?

It has come out recently that Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine is 95% effective and is awaiting approval. Naturally, the question of how the vaccine will be distributed has come up. Pfizer has reached a deal with the US government to produce enough doses of the vaccine for about 12.5 million Americans for free by the end of this year. These will go to healthcare workers and vulnerable populations. For the general public, the vaccine should be available next year and will also be paid for with taxpayer dollars.

In order to determine whether something is a public good, we need to see if it is infeasible to exclude people from it, and whether it is rivaled in consumption (meaning utility goes down as more people consume the good). The CDC states on their website that vaccination providers will be able to charge a fee for administering the vaccine, but this fee will be reimbursed by a patient's health insurance. If a patient has no insurance, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Provider Relief Fund will cover it. Since there will be no cost to anyone for the vaccine, it is infeasible to exclude anyone from it. Once the vaccine is widely available, it will also be non-rivaled in consumption, because one more person receiving a vaccine has no negative effect on the next person receiving the vaccine. Since the vaccine will meet both of these criteria, it will be a pure public good.