Friday, 17 May, 2024
Vaccine nationalism was observed by vaccine developing countries which did and will continue to prove to be counterproductive as the world continues to fight Covid.
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the world order in unimaginable ways. Economies around the globe experienced the worst downfalls and are still trying to recover from the unimaginable lows that were hit. The only sigh of relief came in the form of vaccines being developed and the hope was for an equitable distribution of the same. However, as has always been the case, the deep-pocketed countries seemed to benefit in this regard as well by excessively hoarding vaccines leaving the poorer countries unvaccinated. Vaccine nationalism was observed by vaccine developing countries which did and will continue to prove to be counterproductive as the world continues to fight Covid. Countries like the US, Canada, Germany, among many others alone held millions of vaccines that were way beyond what the country would’ve needed even post the booster shots.
The map below shows the number of vaccine contracts made by nations and the % of populations covered. As can be observed from the legend, all areas marked in green basically show the countries who reserved doses far in excess of their populations.
(Source: Bloomberg) (2021 data)
The following chart shows the number of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine. The inequality seen here on the basis of income measures is beyond compare. The simple idea that the virus will continue to grow till everyone is vaccinated is clearly less important to countries than saving vaccines (and even wasting millions) for their “own” countries.
In this wake, India and South Africa have requested the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to encourage waiving the Intellectual Property rights (TRIPS) from vaccines during the duration of the pandemic. The proposal has also been supported by the US. The main idea behind the waiver is to ensure that vaccines and other necessary technology are accessible to the poor nations as well. However, the proposal has been rejected by quite a few high income countries on the grounds that this will remove the incentive for any kind of innovation at this crucial time.
What needs to be understood here is that any kind of a “voluntary transfer” of vaccines or the technology is highly unlikely and hence the proposal does hold merit. This temporary ban will help in increasing the production of vaccines by several domestic producers thus making it accessible to the lower income nations. Additionally, there are also reports which suggest that lack of vaccination has and maybe even in the future lead to new variants being born. While the relation is not direct, better vaccine coverage can contain the impact of these new variants.
However, the concern being raised is the contradictory stance of India at home and at the global level. The Indian government has asked the Supreme Court to not even consider discussing the possibility of the state’s power to abolish the intellectual property rights on vaccines or essential drugs. It won’t be a long shot to assume that this will harm India’s standing at the global level and will reflect poorly on the patent waiver proposal being made.
