Vaccine Politics

     Even amidst a global pandemic, competition and using disasters for political gain still exist. The lead-runners for a Covid vaccine right now are China, the USA, and Russia. Whoever vaccine first shows the most efficacy and safety will be at an advantage. I would like to discuss the potential outcomes if China were to come up with the first Covid vaccine. China has been trying to expand their influence in Southeast Asia and Africa. China has already pledged vaccines to the Philippines, Indonesia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, South Asia and others to win them over. While some of these countries such as Indonesia say they are skeptical because of the leverage that China would weld over their country, they have little to no choice but to accept these offers. This is not only beneficial to Chinas diplomacy, but it would also help correct their image, since they handled the beginning of the pandemic so poorly. 

    The wielders of the first vaccine are so important because this country will be seen as those who restore the economy and global influence. Political leaders will also do almost anything at this point to have vaccines for their people, giving this country a lot of power. I think that if China creates the first vaccine, not only will they expand their influence over Southeast Asia and Africa, but tensions between the US and China might grow. President Trump has accused Chinese hackers of trying to steal vaccine-related information. This would mean that China is breaking the nonaggression pact, signed in 2015. Because the first vaccine means power, if China stole that from the US there would be even more tension toward china than there already is, and its high already. 

    Since this is mostly about political gain, whoever wins, there is the chance that the wealthier countries will buy up all the supplies, leaving only the leftovers to the rest of the world. The pandemic will not end until we have herd immunity, and for that to happen the majority of people need to be vaccinated. We need to start looking at this as all of us vs the virus, and not country vs country. Until then, this pandemic will linger on.