To Share or Not To Share

Apr 22nd 2021

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, writes in The New York Times about fighting the pandemic. And he has some very good suggestions.

I Run the W.H.O., and I Know That Rich Countries Must Make a Choice

As some countries, the developed, are vaccinating at great speed, some, the developing, are left behind.

Nothing new under the sun…

The pandemic is, by definition, a global problem, so it obviously needs global solutions. As Dr. Tedros writes the mechanisms and agreements exist, we, i.e. the developed countries, just need to follow them.

Fixing things in your own country helps, but it does not solve the problem. It does help you get elected again, so it is understandable that politicians focus on that, but from a global perspective is it really acceptable?

The pandemic will not go away until we tackle it with a global attitude and share vaccines, technology and resources. We should have done this already, but we missed it, and the second best time is now.

If we do not share now, we should ask ourselves:

If we do not share now, then when?
If we do not share now, then who will?