About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


99 Foreign Aff. 96 (2020)
The Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism: Only Cooperation Can End the Pandemic

handle is hein.journals/fora99 and id is 926 raw text is: The Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism Only Cooperation Can End the Pandemic Thomas J Bollyky and Chad P. Bown Trump administration officials have compared the global alloca- tion of vaccines against the coronavirus that causes covID-19 to oxygen masks dropping inside a depressurizing airplane. You put on your own first, and then we want to help others as quickly as possible, Peter Marks, a senior official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who oversaw the initial phases of vaccine development for the U.S. government, said during a panel discussion in June. The major difference, of course, is that airplane oxygen masks do not drop only in first class-which is the equivalent of what will happen when vaccines eventually become available if governments delay providing access to them to people in other countries. By early July, there were 160 candidate vaccines against the new coronavirus in development, with 21 in clinical trials. Although it will be months, at least, before one or more of those candidates has been proved to be safe and effective and is ready to be delivered, countries that manufacture vaccines (and wealthy ones that do not) are already competing to lock in early access. And to judge from the way governments have acted during the current pandemic and past outbreaks, it seems highly likely that such behavior will persist. Absent an international, enforceable commitment to distribute vac- cines globally in an equitable and rational way, leaders will instead prioritize taking care of their own populations over slowing the THOMAS J. BOLLYKY is Director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. CHAD P. BOWN is Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 96 FOREIGN AFFAIRS