Joe Biden’s ‘America first’ vaccine policy is a taste of things to come
- The US is unwilling to donate vaccine doses to other countries at present, yet it criticises China’s contributions to the global vaccine drive
- In matters of public health cooperation, the Biden administration is looking a lot like the previous one under Donald Trump
The move was late in coming – and perceived by many as an attempt to repair the United States’ reputation and mend fences with the rest of the world following the Donald Trump presidency. It was, nevertheless, a welcome move, giving a much-needed financial boost to Covax Facility.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s other decisions on health cooperation are not endearing the US to the developing world.
And yet, despite the fact that most coronavirus vaccines were developed with government funding or crowdfunded, wealthy nations like the US argue that the waiver would stifle innovation at pharmaceutical companies. This, in effect, robs poor countries of a chance to quickly roll out mass vaccinations, which would result in many avoidable deaths.
For this reason, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week blasted those countries for resisting the waiver. Calling on WTO members to waive intellectual property rules and save lives in a once-in-a-century public health crisis, he said: “If not now, when?”
Increasingly, there is a sense in the developing world that the White House values the profits of American drug makers more than lives in other countries.
Meanwhile, the US government has secured 600 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to be made by the end of July, and purchased many doses of other vaccines. All told, enough advance orders have been placed to immunise every American twice over, while about 100 countries do not have a single dose.
This brings to mind a scene painted by Tang poet Du Fu in an oft-quoted line: “Behind those vermilion gates, meat and wine go to waste; while out on the road lie the bones of men frozen to death.”
The vaccine divide between developed and developing countries has prompted UN chief Antonio Guterres to call on wealthy nations to “share excess doses”.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the EU and the US allocate up to 5 per cent of their doses to developing nations, an idea that he said German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported.
However, these calls have fallen on deaf ears in Washington. The US flatly refuses to donate its doses before it has an abundant domestic supply.
In countries such as Turkey and the Philippines, Chinese vaccines have been – and may continue to be for months to come – the only life-saving jabs available.
And yet the US is “concerned” by this development. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki last month characterised China’s efforts to help make affordable vaccines available to the world as “a means of making progress diplomatically”.
Such a view merely reflects the Biden administration’s narrow calculation of geopolitics. Washington has turned a worldwide public health issue into a matter of national rivalry and soft power. Apparently, containment of a country it sees as an adversary is more important than global containment of coronavirus.
But consider this: is it conscionable for someone who is loath to lend a helping hand himself to then try to stop other people from putting out a fire in his neighbour’s house – just because he hates to see the neighbour being grateful to them?
Again, one has to wonder if the Biden administration is more interested in pursuing its own geopolitical goals than saving lives, not to mention livelihoods, in the rest of the world.
Yes, America is back, all right – and repeating the same old stuff. The self-serving agenda, the disregard for other countries: it’s as if Trump never left.
If the Biden administration’s policy on vaccination is the harbinger of things to come, it should be safe to conclude that US foreign policy will continue to be guided by geopolitical concerns instead of genuine issues such as the well-being of other peoples and the proper functioning of international organisations.
Zhou Xiaoming is currently a senior researcher at the Centre for China and Globalisation and former deputy permanent representative of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva