Our allies may need vaccine more than us

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

With those with the greatest buying power prepurchasing vast amounts of potential vaccines – more than 3.8 billion doses have already been bought by highincome countries, more than all other nations combined – there is growing concern about how long some nations will have to wait in line.

The Coalition has committed more than $120 million with Covax, a global collaboration of more than 180 countries established to try to ensure all countries have equal access to a vaccine to buy enough doses to vaccinate half of Australia’s population, while another $80m was committed to assisting less wealthy nations get enough supply.

US President Donald Trump has refused to join in the global Covax effort and also signed an executive order to ensure that all Us-purchased vaccine goes to Americans first. This leadership vacuum has left the door open for Russia and China, which are using America’s lack of interest in joining a global effort as an opportunity to expand their influence by offering less wealthy nations doses of their own state-backed vaccines.

Australia, which is virtually free of Covid-19 community transmission, needs to think hard about how many doses of vaccine it uses while Indonesia, one of its closest neighbours and allies, is losing the battle to contain the virus. Responsible nations must balance their needs with the global fight against the pandemic too.