Selfish Western countries should give 'vaccine diplomacy' a try

A toxic new term, "vaccine diplomacy," is spreading through the West.

The phrase is an effort delegitimizing China's decision to treat COVID-19 vaccines as a global good – and distract people from rich countries' shortsighted selfishness in dealing with a global health threat.

As China vaccinates its own population, it has also donated vaccines to 53 countries, and sold them at a low price to 27 countries.

Meanwhile, high income countries are squabbling among themselves to see who gets vaccines first. Some have pledged not to allow any exports.

Rich nations representing a sixth of the global population have snatched up about 70 percent of COVID-19 vaccines available in 2021.

Just 10 countries have administered more than 75 percent of COVID-19 vaccinations. The UN calls this a moral catastrophe.

This situation is a far cry from era of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. In the 1950s, these two scientists refused to patent the polio vaccine, asking, "Would you patent the sun?"

The me-first logic of the West toward COVID-19 vaccines reflects a larger blind spot. The biggest problems the world faces are global in scope, and require global solutions.

For example, the immigration problem the US faces on its southern border is tied to the wealth gap between the US and its neighbors.

For decades, the US did not try to lift the people of those nations out of poverty. Instead, the US supported oppressive regimes that offered a favorable business environment to US corporations. Now, desperate refugees from certain nations are striving to get into the United States, even by illegal means.

Similarly, the US under Trump has refused to take part in global climate change efforts. It did not want to make sacrifices that may hurt its economy.

Now, unprecedented catastrophic storms and fires fueled by shifting weather patterns ravage the country.

In the case of COVID-19, the US's unilateral moves that let the virus spread throughout undeveloped countries are coming back to haunt it.

Now, mutations and dangerous variants are incubating in poor nations, and killing people in the West.

Putting the rich first in line for vaccines is not just morally repugnant. It is also a short-sighted way to handle a health crisis. None of us are safe until all of us are safe.

The US has been battling for influence in the norms and institutions that will govern the world in the 21st century.

The US says its economic and political system should be the measuring stick others are judged by, because it is the most efficient and benefits the most people.

That can't really be true. If it was, why are Western countries struggling to manufacture vaccines for themselves, while China is distributing them around the world?

Western pharmaceutical companies are motivated to set up their vaccine production to maximize profits, not to prepare for a disaster or vaccinate as many people as possible in a short period of time.

The inefficiency of the US system doesn't simply fall apart with vaccine distribution.

This week, the collapse of water and power supplies in the state of Texas was a direct result of extreme free-market policies.

The US worship of unfettered market forces and extreme individualism causes a lot of unnecessary problems.

Obvious examples include school shootings and the recent attack on the US Capitol. Unchecked dangerous disinformation has divided the nation, and muddied the COVID-19 public health response.

Blind reliance on market forces has also led to big gaps between the rich and everyone else in areas like education, health care, and employment opportunities.

Narrow forces of greed in the West are smearing China, because they don't want to share their wealth with the rest of the world, or even with everyday people in their own countries.

Before the sour-grapes term "vaccine diplomacy" was coined, China was accused of "debt-trap" diplomacy.

It seems that whenever China helps other countries – building on its vision that we are all in this world together and share a common future – the West finds a way to paint it as sinister.

When China uses its power for global good that will help itself and other nations, it is accused of cynically trying to accrue "soft power" using "vaccine diplomacy."

The people of the world wish the self-absorbed countries of the West would give "vaccine diplomacy" a try – and take concrete actions to earn "soft power."