The move was late in coming – and perceived by many as an attempt to repair the United States’ reputation and mend fences with the rest of the world following the Donald Trump presidency. It was, nevertheless, a welcome move, giving a much-needed financial boost to Covax Facility.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s other decisions on health cooperation are not endearing the US to the developing world.

For months, the US, together with the European Union and Britain, has opposed a proposal by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization that intellectual property rules related to Covid-19 vaccines should be temporarily suspended. The waiver would allow drug makers in poor countries to produce generic versions of these vaccines to ensure their citizens’ timely access to vaccines.

And yet, despite the fact that most coronavirus vaccines were developed with government funding or crowdfunded, wealthy nations like the US argue that the waiver would stifle innovation at pharmaceutical companies. This, in effect, robs poor countries of a chance to quickly roll out mass vaccinations, which would result in many avoidable deaths.

For this reason, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week blasted those countries for resisting the waiver. Calling on WTO members to waive intellectual property rules and save lives in a once-in-a-century public health crisis, he said: “If not now, when?”

Increasingly, there is a sense in the developing world that the White House values the profits of American drug makers more than lives in other countries.

Then there is the vaccine hoarding in the developed world. According to an article in The Lancet, rich nations, with just 16 per cent of the world’s population, have pre-ordered 70 per cent of the doses of five major vaccine candidates available in 2021. These deals undermine the efforts of Covax Facility to secure doses for poorer nations.

Consequently, Ivory Coast and Ghana are the only countries so far to have received vaccines from Covax Facility.

Meanwhile, the US government has secured 600 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to be made by the end of July, and purchased many doses of other vaccines. All told, enough advance orders have been placed to immunise every American twice over, while about 100 countries do not have a single dose.

This brings to mind a scene painted by Tang poet Du Fu in an oft-quoted line: “Behind those vermilion gates, meat and wine go to waste; while out on the road lie the bones of men frozen to death.”

The vaccine divide between developed and developing countries has prompted UN chief Antonio Guterres to call on wealthy nations to “share excess doses”.

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the EU and the US allocate up to 5 per cent of their doses to developing nations, an idea that he said German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported.

However, these calls have fallen on deaf ears in Washington. The US flatly refuses to donate its doses before it has an abundant domestic supply.

China, although it is also under pressure to accelerate its vaccination programme at home, has gone to the rescue of other developing countries. It says it is donating vaccines to 53 countries and exporting to 27. It is also providing 10 million doses for developing nations through Covax Facility.

In countries such as Turkey and the Philippines, Chinese vaccines have been – and may continue to be for months to come – the only life-saving jabs available.

And yet the US is “concerned” by this development. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki last month characterised China’s efforts to help make affordable vaccines available to the world as “a means of making progress diplomatically”.

Such a view merely reflects the Biden administration’s narrow calculation of geopolitics. Washington has turned a worldwide public health issue into a matter of national rivalry and soft power. Apparently, containment of a country it sees as an adversary is more important than global containment of coronavirus.

But consider this: is it conscionable for someone who is loath to lend a helping hand himself to then try to stop other people from putting out a fire in his neighbour’s house – just because he hates to see the neighbour being grateful to them?

Again, one has to wonder if the Biden administration is more interested in pursuing its own geopolitical goals than saving lives, not to mention livelihoods, in the rest of the world.

Furthermore, the current administration appears to be taking the same divisive approach to international public health cooperation as the previous administration. Last month, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan accused China of withholding information about the initial outbreak of Covid-19 from WHO investigators, a charge that members of the mission quickly refuted.

It is a plain fact that the world can’t beat the coronavirus without solidarity. Indeed, at a time when humanity is under assault, all countries should be united as one to fight the common enemy. To fail to work together is to enable the deadly virus to continue to claim lives and disrupt the world economy.

Yes, America is back, all right – and repeating the same old stuff. The self-serving agenda, the disregard for other countries: it’s as if Trump never left.

If the Biden administration’s policy on vaccination is the harbinger of things to come, it should be safe to conclude that US foreign policy will continue to be guided by geopolitical concerns instead of genuine issues such as the well-being of other peoples and the proper functioning of international organisations.

From SCMP, 2021-3-4