FINAL EXAM

The vaccination campaign against Covid 19 has created a series of tensions all over the world
in terms of distribution of the doses of this medicine. Please, explain which has been the
political use of this situation in terms of soft power (who, how, where), illustrating it with
examples. Do not forget to mention the sources.
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As the largest vaccination campaign in history gets underway, it's not hard to see that
there are many tensions in both politics and health. Around the world, tensions between the
different laboratories producing the vaccine are palpable. In addition, the major powers
seem to be at odds on some notable points. The start of vaccination campaigns around the
world seems a long way off, but the distribution of vaccines is still an issue between health
and politics.
At the moment, many parts of the world, such as India, France and North America, are
experiencing an upsurge in cases and deaths, which is increasing the pressure on orders.
However, some countries are not in favor of the use of certain vaccines, which represents
inequalities in orders between laboratories. Some poorer countries are not in a position to
place orders to vaccinate their populations, so the inequalities in wealth are felt at this time
of Covid-19.

First, we will look at the differences in vaccine ordering by region of the world.
At the beginning of the campaign, the most far-sighted and wealthy countries placed large
orders to vaccinate their elderly as a priority. However, each vaccination strategy appears to
be different. As of December 2020, Canada was the country with the largest order:
358,000,000 doses ordered for approximately 38,000,000 people. This country chose to
position itself with several different laboratories in order to ensure a maximum number of
doses: Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Novax, Johnson & johnson and Sanofi. However, the
United States, the European Union and India appear to be the biggest customers for
AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi.
However, the United States, the European Union and India appear to be the biggest
customers for AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi. Some vaccine
names seem to come up more often than others because their validation or export process
seems more reliable. The weight of the European Union in orders remains unchanged and
even increases over time as a general campaign has been put in place.
We can see that each country has put in place campaigns and action plans in line with their
values and ideas. Mutual support/linkages between certain states were strengthened when
governments wanted to adopt similar strategies and were removed when two countries
seemed to be in total disagreement. Within the EU, for example, Germany decided to
conduct its vaccination campaign in a completely different way from the other members of
the EU Council.
 In a second step, we will show the political stakes that covid-19 creates.
In the case of Europe, the Council of the European Union has set up a common programme,
but the debates on how to deal with the epidemic from a social and economic point of view
have created strong disagreements between the northern and southern European Member
States. On 25 March, nine EU countries called for the creation of covid-19 bonds to help
their countries. If we take a more global view, the US had withdrawn from the WHO when
Donald Trump was still president and was readmitted under Biden. This incident shows
perfectly the existing tensions in the world due to the coronavirus.
Despite a general and immediate cessation of hostilities ordered by the UN in June 2020,
'cold' conflicts are emerging: Russia appears to be discriminating against certain vaccines in
order to promote Sputnik-V. China, for its part, denounces the words of the French president
about the reliability of its vaccine.
So, there is a kind of jealousy between many countries in the world. The world powers want
to stay on top of the vaccinated population and the producing countries want to sell more
and more at the best price in order to profit from this situation. However, some producing
countries may not be able to anticipate the waves of infection in their populations and find
themselves facing a shortage of vaccine.

Thirdly, we can show that the current epidemic reinforces inequalities in the world
and also within countries. Although average citizens around the world are suffering from the
pandemic's health and economic effects, billionaires' fortunes have risen. According to
Forbes results, between 18 March 2020 and 18 January 2021, the combined wealth of all US
billionaires increased by 39 percent. Of the more than 600 US billionaires, the richest five
saw their combined wealth increase by 85% over this period.
In the United States, black people's infection and death rates are significantly higher than
their vaccination rates. This may be due to the digital divide, as lack of internet access makes
it more difficult to get appointments. In addition, vaccination sites are not located in black
and Latino neighborhoods. The pandemic has forced many workers to telework. In the
United States, the majority of black and Latino populations are unfortunately unable to work
from home or are in critical jobs exposed to the virus. This could explain the differences in
the contamination of populations.
Within developed countries, if we take a step back, we can see that it is the poorest
populations who are most easily exposed to health problems in general due to their diet,
their living conditions, etc. Access to health care is also more difficult for them depending on
the country, which may explain why they are more susceptible to the virus and develop
more serious forms, even leading to death.
Now, if we look at the planet as a whole, developing countries seem to be more vulnerable
because they do not have the capacity to obtain masks, vaccines... That's why Moderna has
decided to send 500 million doses of vaccine to poor countries. Some vaccines had already
been sent to Africa, for example, but they tended to be risky, as if rich countries were getting
rid of vaccines that posed a risk to their populations.
 In conclusion, the strong inequalities and tensions due to covid-19 have a strong
impact on the containment of the virus. A "vaccine nationalism" has been observed in many
countries and seems to tend to prolong the pandemic and not to shorten it as desired. But
there is an explanation for this inequality of access to the vaccine: government/laboratory
contracts are the most common, which leaves little visibility for countries with few resources
or few people. The laboratories, even if they wish to protect a maximum number of people,
also have the objective of making money. Thus, they accept the most profitable and secure
contracts. To limit these inequalities, the WHO could set up campaigns to support poor
countries and poor people in rich countries. In France, for example, more and more
vaccination centers are trying to provide access to the rapid vaccine for people sleeping on
the street, for example, by contacting them when they have doses left before the centers
close.
 SOURCES

Les Echos : https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/enjeux-internationaux/covid-moderna-va-livrer-

500-millions-de-doses-aux-pays-pauvres-1311948
Duke Global Health Innovation Center
The coronavirus app
France Inter : https://www.franceinter.fr/monde/quels-sont-les-pays-qui-ont-a-ce-jour-le-
plus-vaccine-leur-population-contre-la-covid-19
Euronews : https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/29/why-has-the-eu-s-coronavirus-vaccine-
rollout-been-so-slow
The New York Times : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-
inequality.html
The conversation : https://theconversation.com/vaccine-diplomacy-how-some-countries-
are-using-covid-to-enhance-their-soft-power-155697
Inequality : https://inequality.org/facts/inequality-and-covid-19/
Canada.ca : https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/immunization-vaccine-
priorities/national-immunization-strategy.html
France culture : https://www.franceculture.fr/sciences/covid-19-les-enjeux-geopolitiques-
derriere-la-course-au-vaccin