OPINION: Trump Helped Destroy Global Cooperation Amidst The Pandemic—It’s Up To Biden To Fix It
Himaja Reddy (SFS ‘23) is a journalist for the Western Europe and Canada section and a guest writer for the Caravel's opinion section. The content and opinions of this piece are the writer’s and the writer’s alone. They do not reflect the opinions of the Caravel or its staff.
President Trump receives a COVID-19 briefing in the White House. (Wikimedia)
The end of the pandemic may finally be in sight. Early last week, Pfizer announced a coronavirus vaccine that they have found to be 90 percent effective during trials. However, it will be months before any return to normalcy. Pfizer must first gain emergency authorization from governments, determine how to distribute vaccines globally given their temperature constraints, and develop enough doses to allow global herd immunity. In addition, it’s likely that another vaccine that can be stored at room temperature and requires only a single dose will need to join Pfizer’s.
In the meantime, the incoming Biden administration will have to contend with a significant second surge in cases around the globe (the U.S. alone is recording around 100,000 new cases per day), further economic difficulties, and a new global coordination crisis as countries scramble to gain access to the vaccine.
Biden is set to inherit a global order in disarray. Under the Trump administration, the world saw significant U.S. retreat from global leadership that starkly contrasted its earlier efforts in leading the fight against the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the polio epidemic—in which the U.S. and the USSR collaborated to produce the vaccine. The New York Times called this pandemic “perhaps the first global crisis in more than a century where no one is even looking to the United States for leadership.”
Under the current administration, one with a “zero-sum” view of the world that constantly attacks international institutions and alliances in favor of advancing an “America First” agenda for the sake of domestic politics, the U.S. has pulled away from nearly every opportunity to lead. The U.S. withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), arguing it was too soft on China (ignoring that the WHO has few enforcement mechanisms to punish any country, much less China), prevented any joint statement or coordination from the G7 and National Security Council by demanding the virus be called the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus” in a play to shift domestic blame onto China, and even allegedly met with a German biotech company to secure exclusive access to their potential COVID-19 vaccine. The United States, under the Trump administration, has consistently undermined international trust and cooperation in a series of actions that have left both the U.S. and the greater international community at a disadvantage. However, the fastest way to eradicate this virus and recover global markets is through the very international organizations, institutions, and norms President Trump has consistently attacked.
In the absence of strong U.S. leadership to initiate global coordination, other countries are reacting with similar nationalist policies. States are weaponizing interdependence and using choke points in fragile global supply chains to extract benefits at the expense of other countries. The U.S. has not been the sole cause of the current global disarray, but it has remained complicit in discouraging cooperation for the common good. For example, in a maneuver that Germany saw as “piracy,” the U.S. intercepted shipments of masks from Thailand to Germany for domestic use. Germany, despite the pleas of Italy and other EU nations, blocked the export of protective medical masks and other essential medical supplies. Similarly, India restricted the export of general pharmaceuticals and ingredients used in their production during a time of high need. Foreign Policy describes the current situation as “a chaotic global marketplace where governments and health care officials consort with dubious middlemen for medical supplies, acting on rumors and personal connections, fighting to outbid and undercut each other.” The entire world, and each individual country, would be better off with global cooperation—but it is difficult to cooperate when a world power like the U.S. is not interested.
During his initial months in office, Biden must not only rejoin the World Health Organization (and pay dues), but also reverse the rhetoric set by his predecessor. It is not enough to just cooperate—it is imperative for the U.S. to be at the forefront of this fight, as it was in past health crises, coordinating health and fiscal policies, as well as providing developing countries with equitable access to medical supplies and vaccines. By leading the solution to this collective action problem, the U.S. will encourage other states to credibly commit to cooperation, retreating from their current defensive and selfish policies. Leading the global response, even if certain countries refuse to contribute financial or informational support, is in the interest of the U.S. people given the severe nature of this threat.
There is still a long way to go before we can declare the pandemic a crisis of the past. It is up to the incoming administration to return the U.S. to the global stage and to offer leadership in the absence of it. Being at the vanguard of this battle for the international common good is not against but perfectly in line with the “America First” sentiment that nearly half the country is adamantly clinging to.
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