Western vaccine nationalism is opening the door for China to lead the global recovery

While the West has every reason to feel the end of the pandemic is in sight, things look bleaker for many other parts of the planet

If viable alternatives to Western vaccines emerge, rich countries could find China has usurped the mantle of vaccine leadership

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James Borton

James Borton is a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Foreign Policy Institute.

Published: 9:15am, 18 May 2021Updated: 9:26am, 18 May 2021

In spite of pleas for global solidarity in vaccine production and distribution, the global vaccine roll-out is quickly turning into a race between two models of vaccine diplomacy.

On one hand, pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna are making record profits while jealously guarding intellectual property rights over the mRNA vaccines which have been critical to the United States and Europe’s swift vaccine roll-out. Meanwhile, lower-income countries are forced to rely on other types of inoculations.

As a result, while the West has every reason to feel that the end of the pandemic is in sight, things look bleaker for many other parts of the planet. The US alone accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the nearly 1.4 billion jabs given worldwide so far. Meanwhile, Africa’s three most populous countries – Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt, home to more than 400 million people between them – each account for just 0.1 per cent.

Developing countries are understandably seeking ways to bridge that gap. One source of hope has come from Chinese vaccine manufacturers who are collaborating with partners in the developing world to produce and distribute vaccines to countries in need. They received a major boost from the World Health Organization’s decision to greenlight China’s Sinopharm vaccine.