New Report Warns 'Vaccine Nationalism' of Rich Nations Could Cost Global Economy Over $9 Trillion

[appalachiablue]

'Report Warns 'Vaccine Nationalism' of Rich Nations Could Cost Global Economy Over $9 Trill. Common Dreams, 1/26/21.

- "Truly, no one is safe until everyone is safe." -

In addition to endangering the health and lives of millions of people in developing nations, coronavirus vaccine hoarding by rich countries such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom also poses a significant threat to the global economy, potentially causing worldwide income losses of up to $9.2 trillion USD.

"A people's vaccine is in everyone's interests. Time for pharmaceutical companies and governments to step up."- The People's Vaccine Alliance

That's according to a report out Monday titled The Economic Case for Global Vaccinations (pdf), a comprehensive analysis showing the dramatic economic benefits of "funding multilateral efforts to ensure equitable access to vaccines"—and the likely massive costs of failing to do so, for both rich and poor nations.

Commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Research Foundation, the 64-page report warns that given the interconnectedness of the modern global economy, wealthy countries that have the ability to adequately vaccinate their populations will still suffer major financial losses due to the pandemic "if infection continues to spread unabated in emerging markets."

"The longer we wait to provide vaccines, tests, and treatments to all countries, the faster the virus will take hold, the potential for more variants will emerge, the greater the chance today's vaccines could become ineffective, and the harder it will be for all countries to recover," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said in response to the new report.

"Truly," Tedros added, "no one is safe until everyone is safe."...

More,
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/26/report-warns-vaccine-nationalism-rich-nations-could-cost-global-economy-over-9

[Nitram]

1. How do we give vaccines away to other countries when we don't have enough yet for our own country?

[appalachiablue]

2. Hopefully Biden's admin will put the US on a better

course soon; I don't know the situation in the UK and Canada. But governments and leaders better figure it out because the longer the disease rages, the more deaths and opportunity for mutation which will prolong the suffering worldwide.

[Nitram]

7. The US will help other countries, as it always has (except during Tump) as soon as production and

distribution of the vaccines has ramped up to a level where we can protect our own citizens and contribute to fighting Covid-19 abroad.

[amcgrath]

3. What would the purpose of hoarding be?

Once your country is vaccinated, you have no further use, unless you are buying it just to deprive other countries? Which would be a stupid move, as it would allow a non allied nation to step in and win the countries goodwill.
As for hoarding, Canada has let it be known that they have contracted manufacturers to make 4x as many doses as they need for their citizens, the rest will be donated free of charge to less wealthy countries. - I believe Trump ordered enough to vaccinate a third of the US population and turned down the offer of a larger amount

[appalachiablue]

6. As noted, better efforts to acquire the vaccine

for poorer countries are underway but the supply so far is sorely inadequate. With awareness and coordination by governments and global organizations hopefully things will improve. It could be a long process.

Thanks for the comment, 2 more posts copied which you might want to delete. It's due to a system glitch I think.
--------
From the article:

Time for pharmaceutical companies and governments to step up," the coalition said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a similar call to action during a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, declaring that "we all must act together in combating the virus."

"The rich countries of the world went out and acquired large doses of vaccines," said Ramaphosa. "Some countries even acquired up to four times what their population needs. We are all not safe if some countries are vaccinating their people and other countries are not vaccinating."

Late last week, pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and BioNTech announced an agreement to sell up to 40 million doses of their coronavirus vaccine to COVAX, a global vaccination initiative led by the WHO and other organizations.

Niko Lusiani, senior adviser with Oxfam America, said in a statement Monday that while the deal is a step in the right direction, "it is woefully insufficient and will be barely leave a dent in our goal of ending this pandemic."

[amcgrath]

4. What would the purpose of hoarding be?

Once your country is vaccinated, you have no further use, unless you are buying it just to deprive other countries? Which would be a stupid move, as it would allow a non allied nation to step in and win the countries goodwill.
As for hoarding, Canada has let it be known that they have contracted manufacturers to make 4x as many doses as they need for their citizens, the rest will be donated free of charge to less wealthy countries. - I believe Trump ordered enough to vaccinate a third of the US population and turned down the offer of a larger amount

[amcgrath]

5. What would the purpose of hoarding be?

Once your country is vaccinated, you have no further use, unless you are buying it just to deprive other countries? Which would be a stupid move, as it would allow a non allied nation to step in and win the countries goodwill.
As for hoarding, Canada has let it be known that they have contracted manufacturers to make 4x as many doses as they need for their citizens, the rest will be donated free of charge to less wealthy countries. - I believe Trump ordered enough to vaccinate a third of the US population and turned down the offer of a larger amount