Game Theory Approach to the Donation of Surplus Vaccines
For link to the news article, click here.
Game Theory is often described as the science of strategy. What choice should you make? When should you make it? What if the other player does something differently? The goal is ultimately to win — to benefit as much as you can. And sometimes you win through ways you wouldn’t expect to. What I find most fascinating about Game Theory is its applicability to real world situations and how simple it is to understand and explain.
The article speaks of a theoretical game, where the players are wealthier countries and poorer countries. What they both want to win is the least amount of covid-19 outbreaks. And what they are playing with are the excess vaccines that wealthier countries store for future use and/or new outbreaks. Now, at first thought the wealthier countries might think that the best course of action for them is to save their vaccines for future outbreaks of known or new strains of covid-19. However, that is not the case because covid-19 is not a national issue and it does not stop at national borders. Because outbreaks and new strains more often develop in poorer countries, if the wealthier countries were to actually donate enough of their vaccines, they would be able to more efficiently prevent covid-19 cases from spiking within their own borders.
Like the many other examples we went over in class, e.g. the soccer penalty one, game theory can be easily applied to situations. The concept the article spoke of is the same as the concept in class. How the different players cooperate or play the game changes the outcome and payoffs, and the unique interactions between them allow for several endings to the game.