The most telling lesson of the coronavirus pandemic is that "no one is safe until everyone is safe." It is an indisputable proof of our biological connectedness which is even more consequential for life and livelihood than the digital connectivity that is the buzz word of the millennials.
As it happens in any pandemic, the coronavirus does not respect geo-political boundaries; neither is it restricted by socio-economic and cultural divides. The virus infects the poor and the rich alike. It overwhelms developed countries and underdeveloped countries despite the sophistication of the healthcare system of the industrialised countries. Yet humanitarian disasters loom in some parts of the world because this obvious lesson seems to be currently lost on mankind.
The Politics and Economics of Vaccines
About this time last year, no fewer than 140 world leaders and experts issued an unprecedented joint statement calling for equity and humaneness in the distribution of the vaccines meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It was indeed a battle cry for "people's vaccines." The essence of the call was to ensure a global arrangement to guarantee the provision of COVID-19 diagnostics, tests, vaccines and treatments to everyone on earth.
Among the signatories to the statement were President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Chair of the African Union, the President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall, and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. Notable economists including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and public health experts join the political leaders in signing the statement. Their motivation was obvious: the pandemic is a tragic reminder of our shared humanity which some members of the global elites and establishments seem to have forgotten. They are immersed in their myopic and selfish pursuit of polices defined by unbridled competition instead of cooperation and isolationism rather than multilateralism. The world leaders and experts argued as follows:
"It is time for Health Ministers to renew the commitments made at the founding of the World Health Organization, where all states agreed to deliver the 'the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being.
Now is not the time to allow the interests of the wealthiest corporations and governments to be placed before the universal need to save lives, or to leave this massive and moral task to market forces. Access to vaccines and treatments as global public goods are in the interests of all humanity. We cannot afford for monopolies, crude competition and near-sighted nationalism to stand in the way."
It is also worth noting that President Ramaphosa in a separate statement added an African note to the clamour for the equitable distribution of vaccines:
"Billions of people today await a vaccine that is our best hope of ending this pandemic. As the countries of Africa, we are resolute that the COVID-19 vaccine must be patent-free, rapidly made and distributed, and free for all. All the science must be shared between governments. Nobody should be pushed to the back of the vaccine queue because of where they live or what they earn."
Since the May 14, 2020 statement, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic has shifted from China to Europe, the Americas and now back to Asia, in India, where more than 230,000 persons have died. More than 5,000 human beings die daily in India! Watching the grim footages on television today of the havoc being wreaked by coronavirus in places as diverse on the planet as India, Brazil and Turkey you would not believe that that statement was ever made in the sober moment of May 2020 when the whole world was on a virtual lockdown.
The sad story is that of the resurgence of vaccine nationalism with all its perils for our shared humanity. The current battle is not only against coronavirus; it is also a war against vaccine inequality. The trend is a portrayal of the huge deficits in the global consciousness about our collective humanity. Intriguingly, these deficits are not on the part of the poor people who continue to exude immense humanity despite their sordid conditions. The deficits are noticeable more on the part of the selfish poltical and economic elites who make decisions in the rich countries.