Böll.Global 7: Vaccine geopolitics and its implications

No country is safe from COVID-19 until all countries are safe from COVID-19. To state the obvious: To overcome a pandemic of this magnitude, vaccines must be made available fast, at low cost, and distributed fairly. New vaccines have been developed at a historically unprecedented pace ‒ funded with billions from public budgets. Yet so far there is no coordinated global vaccine policy for their distribution. The quantities of vaccine distributed through the COVAX initiative are insufficient to provide adequate coverage for populous countries in the Global South. Making the required technological know-how for vaccine production available for free could finally also halt the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. It would also be a strong sign of global solidarity and cooperation.

Instead, vaccine egotism is taking hold ‒ America first, Europe first. Industrialized countries are securing vaccines for themselves while at the same time insisting that private pharmaceutical companies charge steep license fees for their patents on new vaccines. This, however, is preventing emerging markets from building urgently needed production capacities. Russia, China, and India, on the other hand, are using their vaccine capacities to strategically expand their spheres of political influence, creating new geopolitical realities that will impact us for a long time to come.

The seventh edition of Boell.Global looks at how vaccine geopolitics affects global vaccine distribution. With our speakers, we will discuss the vaccination situation and the impact of vaccine geopolitics in Africa and Latin America, as well as the challenges currently facing both individual countries and the international community, and how the much-needed vaccine equity for all can be achieved.

Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation will discuss with:

• Zainab Usman, Director of the Africa Program at Carnegie Endownment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
• Adriana Abdenur, Co-founder and executive director of Plataforma CIPÓ - independent women-led policy institute in Brazil focusing on climate, governance and peacebuilding in Latin America and the Global South
• Tahir Amin, British lawyer, co-founder and co-director of the non-governmental organization Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge (I-MAK)

Contact:
Michael Alvarez
E alvarez@boell.de

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