After five years of deliberation the global south has forced the question that defined the Covid crisis: who will get the vaccines?
T
he Covid-19 pandemic did deep and lasting damage to the international political system. Countries in the global south are keenly aware that the established order let them down. They received vaccines later, in smaller numbers and often at a higher price than rich countries, resulting in avoidable death and suffering, and extended economic malaise. Last week, a coalition of those countries made their displeasure known by continuing to stonewall negotiations on the vaunted pandemic preparedness treaty of the World Health Organization (WHO), sending a clear message that when the next crisis arrives, they will not accept the same status quo.
An international treaty is sorely needed. But five years into negotiations, it is clear that the western backers of this plan, especially in Europe, have consistently presented it as a fait accompli, while avoiding the most basic and obvious political impasse before them.
In broad terms, countries in the global north want global south states to share information on any new pathogens their scientists encounter. (Research shows that the next pandemic is most likely to emerge from their region.) In return, those countries have organised to demand that global north states and pharmaceutical companies be required to share treatments, including vaccines, developed from that information – a quid pro quo that western states would prefer to keep voluntary. The fact that this sounds like technocratic haggling in what is in effect an annex of the main treaty belies its importance. Vaccine equity is a long-held red line for these global south groups. The larger treaty cannot be ratified without agreement on this issue.
