Another grim milestone reached with 100 million COVID-19 cases

COVID-19 has now infected more than 100 million people, according to figures tabulated by Johns Hopkins University. This figure accounts for 1.3 percent of the global population. With an estimated 2.1 million people dead as a result of the virus, what have we learned about the global ability to counter such threats? What has caused such an uneven geographic distribution of infections and deaths?

The U.S., India, Brazil, Russia and the UK account for half of all infections, but why has the experience of these nations been so much worse than that of many other nations, especially in East Asia?

Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister, cited last year that East Asia's experience with SARS in the early 2000s was a major contributing factor. While the SARS epidemic was less severe than COVID-19, the potential for disaster was enormous, a cautionary experience not forgotten.

SARS led to widespread behavioral changes which were rapidly readopted when the risk of COVID-19 came to light. The uptake of mask-wearing, social distancing and regular sanitizing gave Asian nations an early advantage in reducing exposure and circulation, with Western nations implementing such measures far more slowly.

Education and an awareness and acceptance of the risks will also be vital in the months to come as vaccination programs are rolled out. With the 100 million milestone reached, and an infection every 7.7 seconds since the start of the year according to Reuters, vaccination is the best tool for recovery for many Western nations with containment measures no longer enough.

A recent YouGov poll though, revealed an alarming reluctance in many nations to be vaccinated. In France, 39 percent were willing to receive a vaccine, 23 percent were unsure and 38 percent said they would not be willing to receive inoculation. Less than 30 miles away in the UK, 80 percent are said to be willing to be vaccinated, presenting the French government with a real challenge.

Some nations have responded with Israel, the UAE and the UK aggressively rolling out vaccinations, but other nations like France, urgently need to boost vaccine adoption. In Singapore the rollout has been slower. This is due to the successful containment policies which have led to distinctly low levels of infection proportional to population.

The disparity raises serious questions over the global ability to confront such outbreaks. If lessons are not learned from the coronavirus pandemic, more aggressive viruses, such as an Ebola variant, could prove an insurmountable challenge.

In nations now reliant on vaccinations such as the UK and Germany, healthcare provision is teetering on the edge of being overwhelmed. The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak did prompt the acceptance for the need of warning measures, but at an unacceptably slow pace. The UK currently has advanced virus sequencing which enabled the detection of the UK COVID-19 strain, but other nations like Germany were unable to detect their own strain for several weeks.

There are also issues in the supply of vaccinations. One of the reasons why Israel has been able to vaccinate 44.9 per 100 people, is by early procurement, by paying over the odds and rapid certification of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccination. The EU by contrast was slow to certify and did not procure sufficient vaccines in advance.

This fractured approach has led to enormous frustration in Europe with Brussels now leaning heavily on Pfizer and AstraZeneca to overcome production issues.

As it stands though, less economically developed nations have been less affected than Europe or the U.S., but the World Health Organization's COVAX program aimed at providing vaccines for the developing world is desperately underfunded. A spike in cases in Africa or elsewhere would overwhelm the program and lead to a widespread loss of life.

Furthermore, unlike China's Sinovac or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, which can be stored at fridge temperature, the other vaccinations require storage at extremely low temperatures, further reducing the ease of circulation in hard to access locations.

We are therefore reminded once more at 100 million cases, of the shortcomings of the global response to COVID-19. The eroding of institutions such as the WHO has limited power. The experiences of preventative measures and containment exemplified by China have also been slow to be adopted by the West, leading to avoidable widespread contagion.

COVID-19 will not be the last global pandemic, but the world will need to make significant changes, not just in tackling the challenges of the future, but those of the present.

Freddie Reidy is a freelance writer based in London. He studied history and history of art at the University of Kent, Canterbury, specializing in Russian history and international politics.