No one is safe until everyone is safe': Vaccine nationalism threatens global coronavirus effort

USA Today   July 12, 2020

'No one is safe until everyone is safe': Vaccine nationalism threatens global coronavirus effort Instead of collaboration, coordination and sharing, vaccine nationalism pits nation against nation to get and keep enough doses for their citizens. Elizabeth Weise USA TODAY

A deadly virus causes a global pandemic. A wealthy country signs a more than $100 million contract for vaccine with a manufacturer in a small nation. But when the vaccine becomesavailable, the small nation’s government balks, demanding enough for its entire population first before any can be exported.

That's what happened in 2009, when Australia demanded biotech manufacturer CSL fulfill domestic needs for H1N1 vaccine before any could be sent to the United States. 

And it’s exactly the scenario public health experts fear as the world enters into a scientifically turbo-charged but chaotic race to create and then produce coronavirus vaccines. Rather than widespread collaboration, coordination and sharing, “me first” vaccine nationalism pits nation against nation to get and keep enough doses for their citizens.