US vaccine nationalism sabotages global fight against coronavirus: China Daily editorial

Weeks after New Delhi appealed to Washington for the raw materials needed for the production of COVID-19 vaccines, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Friday that the United States' "first and foremost" duty is to vaccinate the American people.

Two days after that statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted on Sunday: "Our hearts go out to the Indian people … we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's healthcare heroes."

Later on the same day, US President Joe Biden said on Twitter: "... we are determined to help India in its time of need."

Sweet words, but of no value unless acted upon.

India is the world's largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines, but it is in dire need of the raw materials. With new variants of the novel coronavirus infecting and killing thousands of people a day, experts are urging the US to allow the export of raw materials so that vaccine production can be ramped up in India.

The administration has denied there is any outright ban on the export of the raw materials, but the prioritizing of them for domestic use means none are being exported. Like his predecessor, Biden has invoked the wartime Defense Production Act which means there is effectively an embargo on exports of 37 essential chemical ingredients, as well as special pumps and other filtration equipment, to other countries.

The US' inaction so far toward the humanitarian crisis in India shows that although "America is back", that does not mean it is wholeheartedly joining hands with other countries to fight the virus.

A few weeks ago when the European Union called on Washington to lift its ban on vaccine exports, it met with the our-hearts-go-out-to-you placebo and a cold shoulder. And the EU is a much closer ally of the US than India.

Instead of contributing to the global fight against the pandemic, the US is playing geopolitics with COVID-19 vaccines to serve its national interests. Its vaccine nationalism has been undermining the global efforts to control the pandemic. While one in four US adults are now fully vaccinated and the US will have more vaccines than it needs in two weeks and a surplus of 300 million doses of vaccines in summer, it is forecast that more than 85 poor countries will not have widespread access to the vaccines before 2023.

The Biden administration admits that it is "first and foremost" engaged in an "ambitious, effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people", but it also claims that this is "in the interest of the rest of the world". People in India and other developing countries that have been hit hard by the virus would beg to differ.

After dragging its feet in matching its words with deeds, it is to be hoped the situation in India will focus the administration's attention on the need for a united response to the pandemic.