WHY AMERICA’S MASS VACCINATION IS BAD FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD

When President of the United States, President Joe Biden assumed office on 20th January, 2021, one of his express projections was to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days.

The rollouts of coronavirus vaccines were just in its early days, but President Joe Biden, motivated by reason of the U.S. suffering the worst covid casualties with 400,000+ deaths in January, would not let more Americans die carelessly under his watch, so his one defensive approach against the virus was mass vaccination. 

By day 58, President Joe Biden and America's Health workers had completed 116 millions vaccine shots for U.S. citizens. 

This approach of mass vaccination is good for America, however, bad for the rest of the world. 

Vaccine Nationalism is the effort by wealthy countries to get first access to vaccination by entering direct deals with Pharmaceutical companies in order to secure billions of vaccine doses for their populations, limiting the stock available and thereby leaving the poorer Nations to struggle for access to Vaccine supplies. 

The world's richest Nations have pre-ordered billions of doses of vaccines - enough to protect tbeir populations several times over. However in doing so, they have left less for others, causing a scramble for the vaccines.

In response, World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a groundbreaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatment and vaccine.

Through the ACT Accelerator, the WHO in collaboration with Gavi- the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), launched COVAX, a program which aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access to every country in the world.

It is unquestionably every government's responsibility to protect it's National interest and take care of it's citizens first, however, the United States by this, is frustrating efforts for the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines as projected by COVAX, making it difficult for the world to make significant progress by fighting the pandemic unevenly.

The United States has already secured vaccines enough for it's 330 million population. In February, the U.S. signed deals with Pfizer and Mordena, two among the world's best vaccine producers, procuring up to 600 million doses Furthermore, it has ordered 100 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and currently has orders with Novavax and AstraZaneca as well, despite this, the United States has not left the vaccine market.

WHO, Director-general, Dr. Tedros has warned that the 'me-first' vaccine policy approach pursued by the United States is self defeating and will prolong the coronavirus, and global trade and travel will continue to suffer.

The reason for this is that the United States will be able to vaccinate all of her citizens, but will not be able to excommunicate other non-vaccinated Nations, and this is risky because we have already seen how quickly the virus can spread around the world if not checked, bringing some of the world's most powerful economies to their knees.

President Joe Biden's 'America first' vaccine policy is short-sighted, it will be ineffective on the long run and it will be deadly for the rest of the world.

This is why the United States needs to play leading role in Vaccine equity by supporting COVAX efforts to make coronavirus vaccines available for every Nation.

Coronavirus is a global pandemic, and no Nation can defeat it by standing alone, with this known, it remains to be seen if the United States of America and other wealthy Nations will prioritize the safety of the planet first, over Individual and Nationalistic interests.

©Agi-Otto Chirunim

International Political Commentary, 2021.