In defence of vaccine nationalism

Donald Trump is, perhaps predictably enough, pulling out of the World Health’s Organisation’s global vaccine programme. The Russian president Vladimir Putin has been cutting every corner to get a Russian shot out first, while allegedly sending spies to steal the Oxford one. And China is racing to have the first vaccine on the market, already trying one out on the military, and allegedly hacking the US company Moderna. As the Covid-19 crisis drags out, ‘vaccine nationalism’ is rampant.

Everyone from the WHO to the European Union to the United Nations solemnly condemns that. We all have to work together to find a vaccine, and then distribute it fairly, we keep being told. Countries shouldn’t take short cuts, they shouldn’t indulge in great power politics, and they certainly shouldn’t try and use a vaccine for political ends or to bolster national prestige. If ever a crisis required global co-operation, and sharing knowledge and resources, it is surely this one? The vaccine nationalists risk hurting all of us.