Fighting the pandemic and ensuring equity in access to vaccines

On Monday, May 17, 2021 US President Joe Biden in a speech at the White House announced that the US will be sharing 20 Million vaccines with the rest of the world by the end of June (this 20 million is in addition to the 60 Million Astra Zeneca vaccines which the country had committed earlier). Significantly, the additional 20 million vaccines, which Biden has committed to the rest of the world include those which had earlier been approved for use in the US.

Commenting on his decision, the US President said

“the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do, it’s the strong thing to do.”

Biden’s announcement has been attributed to a number of factors:

First, nearly 60% of US adults have received at least one shot, and covid19 cases are down in all 50 US states.

Second, US has been facing criticism for not sharing surplus vaccines, and not doing enough to help the rest of the world, especially developing countries in battling the pandemic (in March, US had shared some of its surplus Astra Zeneca vaccines with neighbouring Canada and Mexico). US Policy makers too have been urging US President to share surplus Astra Zeneca vaccines with other countries. Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi in the month of April said:

‘I respectfully but strongly call on the Biden administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to countries hardest hit by the spread of COVID-19, including India, Argentina, and potentially others’

Earlier this month, 57 Congressmen urged the Biden Administration to provide assistance to India. The letter also asked the Biden Administration to provide India with surplus vaccines. While the US government and corporates stepped in to provide India assistance in different ways, Washington drew criticism initially for being slow in offering support to India to combat the second wave of the pandemic.

The New York Times in an editorial titled, ‘America is failing its moral test on vaccines’ also made the argument, that the US should be helping other countries in vaccination.

WHO Chief Adhanom Ghebreyesus also emphasized on the need for increasing global vaccine supply under the COVAX initiative, and for developed countries to play their role in equitable vaccine distribution. Said the WHO Chief:

“We need high- income countries, which have contracted much of the immediate global supply of vaccines, to share them now,”

Third, there is an obvious realization that the spread of covid19 in other parts of the world will have an impact on the US which has been pointed out by many US policy makers and experts. During his speech on Monday, the US President made this point.

Biden made two important points. First, that the US will not use vaccines to secure favours from others (the US President was alluding to Russia and China). While US has focused on vaccinating its own citizens, it is keen not to lose the perception battle vis-à-vis China (which has donated more than 17 million doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac) and Russia. An article published in the Economist, last month,titled ‘Vaccine diplomacy boosts Russia and China’s global standing’ highlighted the point, that while the vaccine roll out may not have been a total success, both countries had managed to send out a message that they were less selfish than western countries, especially the US.

Second, that US will coordinate its efforts with other democracies to fight the pandemic, and that during next month’s G7 Summit important announcements would be made in this direction. This fits in with Biden’s focus of working with democracies to deal with the pandemic.

Biden’s decision comes weeks after the US had agreed to support the demand of India, and other countries for waiving IP (Intellectual Property) protection of covid19 vaccines. India and South Africa along with 100 countries have been making a case at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for waiver on patents and trademarks on all products required for fighting covid19 (China too has supported this demand)

In conclusion, while the US President’s recent decision to share surplus US vaccines is laudable, a lot more needs to be done to ensure that a sizeable percent of the population in developing countries gets vaccinated soon.  Fighting the pandemic and ensuring equity in access to vaccines is an uphill task. While all stakeholders have an important role to play if these objectives are to be achieved, developed countries clearly need to take the lead.

Tridivesh Singh Maini
Tridivesh Singh Maini
Tridivesh Singh Maini is a New Delhi based Policy Analyst associated with The Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India