לשם שמים
26
Spring 2021
The Unfortunate Reality of Worldwide Vaccine Nationalism By Benjamin Beal
With the unbelievably quick development and implementation of a vaccine for COVID-19 from the United States to the United Arab Emirates, it would be easy to expect that a return to relative normalcy is on the horizon. However, despite the unprecedented progress made in fighting COVID-19 to this point, if some major changes are not made to the vaccine distribution process, the world will never fully eradicate the coronavirus, and the virus will continue to mutate for years to come.
while Latin America and the African Union, two bodies that contain about 17% of the world’s COVID cases, only account for about 1% of the world’s distribution forecast.4 With these troubling figures, the threat of COVID could persist in countries unable to access vaccines. At the same time, nations like the US could accept the false notion that the coronavirus is effectively eradicated, while poorer, less powerful countries are still ravaged by its effects.
Even going beyond the health of citizens, Wealthy countries like Israel and the the toll that the continued spread of the virus United Kingdom are inoculating large numbers could have on global economies would be of people on a daily basis, providing some hope catastrophic. The global economic disparity for a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, present could not only spell disaster for low1 but this may just be false hope. The problem income nations but also for wealthy nations as lies in the fact that Vaccine Nationalism well. The World Economic Forum estimates prioritizes limiting transmission of the disease that wealthy countries will spend $1.2 trillion within countries’ borders as opposed to the on dosage orders to vaccinate their respective eradication of COVID worldwide, setting up populations, while the entire cost for supplying the unfortunate reality that herd immunity or low-income nations is estimated to be only eradication may not be as close as we think.2 about 2% of that, around $25 billion.5 The The phrase “Vaccine Nationalism” was coined Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reached a by the World Health Organization in response conclusion that the global economic loss (in to massive purchase orders placed by large terms of GDP) as a result of COVID-19 spread nations and their own populations immediately in low-income countries could come at a $132 following human trials.3 The distribution of billion per-year toll for countries across the vaccines has thus far been more on a basis globe like the US and UK, further incentivizing of who can afford doses as opposed to who other economically stable countries and bodies necessarily needs them. For example, The like the EU to pay greater attention to this RAND Corporation, a nonprofit political and disastrous trend.6 advocacy think tank, estimates that countries Economics and politics are neither the representing 16.5% of the world’s population sole issues present within the umbrella issue of have ordered 60% of available vaccine doses,
