No Time for Isolation
When the pandemic hit, principles of international solidarity and cooperation quickly became the first casualty. As countries around the world scrambled to halt the spread of the virus, narrow national interests ruled supreme. Right-wing leaders from Donald Trump to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro have used the crisis as an excuse to tighten immigration controls and fuel anti-Chinese sentiments. Even within the European Union, the wealthier member states largely ignored the plight of Italy, the first and hardest-hit victim of the coronavirus. As Americans grapple with the harrowing effects of the virus on their own communities, it becomes difficult to focus on the hardships of others. Yet there is a strange sort of comfort in the fact that none of us is facing this unprecedented global health crisis alone. Cities from São Paulo to Tokyo are under lockdown; schools in countries as different as Norway and Namibia have closed down. This is a global crisis and, as such, demands a global solution.
Despite a severe lack of medical equipment and personnel, many poorer countries in Africa and Asia have drawn on the lessons from past epidemics and used innovative testing techniques to fend off the worst of the pandemic. But even more dangerously, some countries in the Global South are now facing a potentially catastrophic “hunger pandemic.” David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) recently warned of “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.” The effects of the pandemic are aggravated by economic crisis, unemployment, and locust plagues in parts of East Africa and the Middle East. Many children rely on schools not just for education, but also for their daily meals. Thus, Beasley estimated that the number of people suffering from acute hunger is likely to double from 136 to 365 million. According to WFP projections, 300,000 people could starve to death every day. Yet WFP, like other UN organizations, lacks the necessary funding to battle the epidemic. Similarly, refugees living in close proximity and often unsanitary conditions are particularly threatened by the coronavirus outbreak. On a global as on a national scale, it is those that are least able to protect themselves that are the most vulnerable to the threat posed by the pandemic.
Global solidarity is not only critical in dealing with the effects of the pandemic, but also in ending it. International collaboration among scientists and researchers has been, and will continue to be, crucial in efforts to develop a vaccine and treatment for the virus. In the battle against coronavirus, scientists from all over the world have identified and shared the virus’ gene sequences and conducted clinical trials across dozens of countries. Still, policymakers seem stuck in their view of international politics as a zero-sum game. In the competitive race to develop the first vaccine, President Trump has reportedly sought to acquire the exclusive rights to a promising vaccine candidate. Similarly, during the 2009 influenza epidemic, wealthy western countries bought up all vaccine supplies. At the height of the AIDS crisis, treatment became accessible to Americans a decade before it reached the hardest-hit African countries. This time must be different. Countries should look to the model of the international vaccine alliance GAVI which works to make drugs more widely accessible by offering companies long-term market access and large volumes in exchange for lower prices. Moreover, the global patent regime must be reformed to enable the global distribution of vaccines and treatments against COVID-19. Rich people or rich countries shouldn’t be the only beneficiaries of scientific progress. In fact, this crisis is as a wake-up call to the importance of battling diseases everywhere. Once we have overcome this pandemic, wealthy countries should redirect greater funds to the prevention of infectious diseases like malaria that kill over 600,000 people every year in poorer regions of the world.
Every crisis is an opportunity for change and renewal. Importantly, however, the lessons of the pandemic will only be those that we choose to learn. If we give in to nationalism and isolationism, we risk the futures of the most vulnerable populations around the globe. If we come together in the face of our shared grief and hope, however, the world will emerge from this stronger and more united than ever. Even as we are separated by borders and travel bans and forced to deal with the effects of the pandemic in our own communities, cities, and countries, we must not forget the values of international cooperation and solidarity. As Samantha Power, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and current Harvard professor, has reminded us, “this won’t end for anyone until it ends for everyone.”
Sources
https://time.com/5838751/globalization-coronavirus/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765944
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52379956
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/coronavirus-united-states-leadership.html