VACCINE IMPERIALISM: CHINA VS. THE WESTERN WORLD
By Lee Siu Hin, Action LA.
February 24, 2021 | EDUCATE! Popular Resistance
Above photo: Heng Sinith/AP.
Vaccine Racism: How Wealthy Nations Stockpile Life-Saving Vaccines While
Poor Countries And Poor People Within These Countries Are Ignored.
How western countries criticize China, despite Chinas success in containing
the virus and providing vaccines to the world.
China and Russia are among the first countries in the world to vaccinate
people, according to the website Our World in Data. By December 15, 2020, at
least 1.5 million Chinese had taken a jab, compared to the U.S. and U.K. who
also began their vaccination campaigns in early December and by December 15
had vaccinated around half a million people.
So far China is leading the world in number of people who are fully
vaccinated or have at least received the first jab. According to the Chinese
media, as of January 23, 2021, nearly 16 million had taken a jab, closely
followed by the number of people vaccinated in the U.S; as of February 9,
China had administered 40.52 million doses and the U.S. had given 43.2
million.
It is just like a neck-and-neck race; the Chinese vaccination campaign had
slowed down over the Chinese New Year holiday (February 11-17), by February
21, U.S. had 63 million people who took the shot, compared with China
(estimated) 53 million. But with the holiday now over, it is expected China
will increase the speed and catch up again quickly.
China and the U.S. face very different situations. At the current rate the
U.S. could vaccinate its population in 6 months; many estimate that China
with 1.4 billion people will take up to two years to fully vaccinate its
population. However, because of its very effective anti-pandemic strategy
with its very low COVID infection rate, experts believe that, unlike the
U.S., China does not need to rush for full vaccination in order to achieve
the goal of herd immunity. China has already won the epidemic war, and now
is acting to prevent any new outbreaks of the virus.
Their first vaccination priorities after the medical workers are workers who
face the public or handle imported goods. These include logistics workers,
bus drivers, hospitality workers and so on. Seniors in China are less likely
to become infected with the virus so the priority for vaccinating them comes
after these public workers (unlike in the western world where public workers
are often at the bottom of the list). Thats one of the reasons China can
vaccinate their citizens at a comfortable rate and be able to allocate
enough vaccines to ship to the rest of the worldand the strategy works.
As for vaccine solidarity, China has become the worlds biggest vaccine
exporting country, especially in vaccine going to the developing countries
of the Global South. It must be pointed out that while the U.S. and European
countries have made much of the billions of doses of their vaccines that
have been ordered, in reality ordered is very different from orders that
have been shipped or even will ever be delivered. Most Chinese orders are
firm orders or orders that will be delivered soon.
Whos Leading The Global Vaccine Race?
As of mid-February there are ten COVID-19 vaccines approved for Emergency
Use Authorization (EUA) around the world and China leads the way with four
of these (Sinopharm/Beijing, Sinopharm/Wuhan, CanSino and Sinovac). The U.S.
has one (Moderna), U.S.-Germany have one (Pfizer/BioNTech), the U.K.-Sweden
have one (Oxford/AstraZeneca), Russia has two (Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona), and
India has one (Covaxin).
According to Our World in Data, as of February 21, there were about 98
countries/regions that are ordering the vaccines. The overwhelming majority
(approximately 85 countries/regions) ordered western-made vaccines
(Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson&Johnson) vs. Chinese
vaccines (approximately 16 countries, Sinopharm/Beijing, Sinopharm/Wuhan,
Sinovac) or a Russian vaccine (9 countries, Sputnik V).
Yet, ordered doesnt mean they have received the vaccines, or even will
receive them soon. At the February 19 United Nations meeting on COVID-19
vaccines, UN Secretary General António Guterres, sharply criticized the
wildly uneven and unfair distribution of COVID vaccines where only ten
countries in the world, notably the U.S., Canada and western European
countries, have taken 75% of all vaccine doses, while 130 other countries
have not received a single dose.
Dog Eat Dog Vaccine Nationalism, Imperialism And Vaccine Apartheid Racism
This is a situation where wealthy nations are hoarding most vaccines and
denying them to poor nations. It is the U.S./U.K against Europe, rich people
against poor people, white against people of colora racist vaccine pyramid
where wealthy western whites are at the top of the food chain and the
non-white poor developing countries are always at the bottom of the bottom.
So far very few western-made vaccines have been delivered to the Global
South. The terms vaccine imperialism and distribution racism are based
on rich countries buying up most western-made vaccinesfar more then they
need, leaving very few for developing countries.
For fair global vaccine distribution, the World Health Organization (WHO)
along with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) created COVAX. It hopes to deliver more than
two billion doses of the vaccines to people in 190 countries in less than a
year. In particular, it wants to ensure 92 poorer countries will receive
access to vaccines at the same time as 98 wealthier countries.
COVAX has raised $6 billion, with an additional $2 billion needed for 2021.
So whos funding COVAX and which countries might benefit most from the deal?
From the birth of COVAX, it has been working closely with western countries
and their pharmaceutical companies, helping them to quickly dominate the
global vaccine market. The U.K. ($734 million) and the U.S. ($4 billion) are
some of the biggest donors for COVAX; these countries got their vaccines
approved from the beginning, such as the U.Ks Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID
vaccine, which helped them become the worlds biggest vaccine providers.
But big orders dont mean theyre able to fulfill orders quickly just like
a used car salesperson, they only push hard for more orders, cutting the
competition out (in this case, Chinese and Russian vaccines) in order to
control the market, but they are not concerned with how to deliver their
products or the quality of them. With a billion doses ordered, the first
batch of western vaccines is only guaranteed for the western world. The rest
of the world, sorry! Theyll need to wait months, even a year before
receiving their products.
Besides the ongoing vaccine wars between the UK and the EU over
Oxford/AstraZeneca supplies, hardly any vaccines have been sent to other
countries.
According to research by Duke Universitys Global Health Innovation Center,
as of January 19, 2021, high-income countries had ordered nearly 4.2 billion
doses, while lower-middle and low-income countries have ordered less than
700 million. One can argue a country should preorder at least 1-2 year
supplies, but many wealthy nations have preordered far more vaccine then
they will need. For example:
The European Union with a population of 450 million has ordered 1.85
billion doses, enough for everyone to be vaccinated 4 times.
The United States with a population of 331 million has ordered 1.21
billion doses, also enough for everyone to be vaccinated 4 times.
Australia, population of 25.5 million, has ordered 115 million doses,
enough for everyone to be vaccinated 4.5 times.
An extreme example is Canada with a population of 37.7 million people.
Canada has ordered 362 million doses, a whopping big number enabling
everyone to be vaccinated 9 times!
By comparison, the vaccine have-nots of the Global South are in a dire
situation:
El Salvador with 6.5 million people has ordered 2 million doses, only
enough to vaccinate one out of three people.
The African Union with 1.32 billion people has ordered 270 million doses;
just enough for one out of five people, or 20 percent of the population in
AU countries could be vaccinated.
Iraq with a population of 40 million has ordered 1.5 million doses, sadly,
only enough for 4 percent of the Iraqi population to get a jab.
Why are western countries overbuying vaccines? Some activists suggest
theyre running a vaccine market monopoly schemewhere they control the
market, so they control the price. Like on the futures trading market, they
can sell their excess vaccines to poor countries for political ransom or a
higher price.
Besides vaccine nationalism, there is also vaccine blockade, where western
economies prevent countries without US dollars or bank wire transfer power
from buying vaccines. This has become the new imperialist weapon against
other countries.
U.S. illegal sanctions against Iran have prevented the Iranians from
purchasing life-saving PPE, medical equipment and now vaccines because they
do not have access to U.S. dollars (the common currency for international
trade) or international wire transfer service (basically international wire
transfer needs SWIFT code, which is controlled by the U.S.).
Israeli is much-hyped for fully vaccinated their citizens in a very
short-time, but across the nearby apartheid wall in Palestine, people are
not getting life-saving vaccines.
Vaccine Community Distribution Racism In The U.S.
As of mid-February, the U.S. has been administering approximately 1.5
million doses of vaccine daily, yet vaccine distribution inequality is very
much in evidence in the inner-city communities of poor people of color. It
can be traced back to the historical roots of racism and economic
oppression.
In Los Angeles County in mid-February, for example, according to LA County
data, the rate of vaccination among white and Asian residents continues to
be significantly higher than among Black/African American and Latino/Latinx
residents:
Black/African Americans are 9% of the 16-and-older county population but
they have received only 5.2% of vaccinations to date.
Latinx residents are 46% of the 16-and-older county population but
represent only 23% of those vaccinated.
The main reason for this discrepancy is that the poor communities continue
to lack convenient access to vaccination facilities, which is not the case
in affluent white communities.
Its the same dire situation in Chicago. Non-white Chicagoans, who makeup a
majority of COVID-19 cases, have faced enormous difficulties in signing up
for vaccine appointments because of technology barriers and pharmacy
deserts. According to the Guardian newspaper:
Despite Black people only accounting for 30% of Chicagos population,
Black Chicagoans make up 60% of all Covid-19 cases. And lack of hospitals,
prominence of food deserts, and other inequalities has turned Covid-19 into
an even more lethal health crisis for these communities. But even during
Chicagos Phase 1A, when only healthcare workers and long term care facility
residents and staff were eligible for vaccination, the majority of those
vaccinated were from more affluent areas such as downtown and the North
Side
.
Furthermore, the notorious Tuskegee experiment, historical economic and
medical inequality has meant that many African Americans remain hesitant
about the new COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the October 2020 report published by the Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC), only 29% of African Americans in the state
said they would definitely or probably get a COVID-19 vaccine. The low
confidence among this racial group stands in stark contrast to the 54% of
Latinos, 60% of whites and 70% of Asian Californians who said they would
definitely or probably get a vaccine (In positive note, African Americans
attitude for vaccination has been slowly improving over the past few months
as the vaccine campaign has been underway).
With historical distrust from the community and inadequate access to
vaccination sites, the inner-city communities of the poor and people of
color will definitely be losers in the vaccine fight.
China Global Vaccine Solidarity
While China was not on the initial COVAX vaccine list, they have sent and/or
donated millions of vaccines around the worldespecially to the Global
South.
According to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, by mid-February China had
donated vaccines to 53 developing countries including Somalia, Iraq, South
Sudan and Palestine. It has also exported vaccines to 22 countries; in
addition, they launched research and development cooperation projects with
more than ten countries. Also at the WHOs request, China will contribute 10
million doses of vaccines to COVAX.
As of February 14, according to the China Global Times, at least 40
countries had ordered or donated at least 561 million doses of Chinese
vaccines; some of the main buyers include Peru (38 million), Mexico (35
million), Indonesia (122.8 million), Philippines (25 million doses with an
additional 0.6 million donation), Turkey (50 million), Brazil (120 million)
and Chile (60 million). Other buyers include Colombia, Uruguay, Myanmar,
Malaysia, Thailand and Laos, and in Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Seychelles,
Zimbabwe, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea.
In Europe, Serbia received Chinese vaccines making their country the second
most vaccinated in Europe (following the U.K.). Hungary became the first EU
member state to receive Chinese vaccines (not-yet EU approved for use).
Chinas vaccine success across the world shows the true meaning of global
solidarity. Not surprisingly the western countries are responding with
nonsense skepticism, jealous rage and spreading unfounded rumors about the
Chinese vaccine safety (just like what the U.S. did last year when it spread
the so called Wuhan military lab leaked virus hoax).
However, for the past two months a dozen global leaders have taken the
Chinese jab in front of cameras to show their support for Chinese vaccines,
including:
Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
Indonesian President Joko Widodo
Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of United Arab
Emirates (UAE)
Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera
and many other global leaders and top government officials.
Why? In addition to many countries resisting western vaccine imperialism,
experts say Chinese vaccines are better suited for the Global South. Chinese
vaccines cost less and have easier logistical requirements, considering that
Pfizers mRNA vaccine needs ultra-cold freezers, a technology and cost which
many developing countries cannot afford.
Western countries vaccine racism, imperialism and mismanagement have caused
massive and chaotic vaccine development and distribution drama and a
vaccination logistic mess.
While pushing unfounded claims about Chinese vaccine safety, Western
mainstream media have mentioned little about the deaths of 23 elderly
Norwegians after they took the Pfizer vaccine.
Nor are the media reporting critical scientific analyses. As of February 12,
with approximately 43 million people vaccinated, there have been nearly
16,000 cases of adverse effects (or 3 out of 10,000) reported after
receiving the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. There have been 929 deaths in the
U.S. of people who have taken the vaccines, some of which could possibly be
attributed to the vaccines. Whatever their reasons, the silence of the
western media and the corporate science community leaves a lot of room for
right-wing anti-Vaxxer movements to use the data to support their wild
vaccine conspiracy theories.
So, What Should We Do?
Progressive activists from anti-racist, community, peace and social justice
movements around the world are increasingly critical of the giant corporate
pharmaceutical companies in western countries for engaging in racism and
vaccine imperialism against communities of color within their countries and
poor countries across the globe.
Many are calling for a broad-based vaccine justice campaign to hold wealthy
western nations and their multinational pharmaceutical companies accountable
and for inviting communities, countries from the Global South, and China to
actively participate in coming up with a solution. DIVIDED WE FALL, UNITED
WE WIN! Together we build global solidarity for faster, more affordable and
more equitable distribution of vaccines to all communities and around the
world.
Lee Siu Hin: National coordinator of National Immigrant Solidarity Network;
the China-U.S. Solidarity Network (CUSN);and e-Medical Alliance, a network
of academia and community activists for both countries committed to
grassroots dialogue. Lee is currently launching a community-based global
vaccine justice campaign, e-mail: ActivistWeb@xxxxxxxxx.