Climate change activist Greta Thunberg became a household name in 2018 when, at the age of 15, she stood outside the Swedish Parliament, demanding legislators “take action” on her coveted issue. Fast forward not even three years later and the barely-legal adult is lecturing the rest of the world about how the COVID-19 vaccine should be distributed.
On Monday, Thunberg announced her foundation will donate $120,000 U.S. dollars to the WHO Foundation’s COVAX program, which provides COVID vaccines to lower-income countries. This is her way of addressing the so-called “vaccine nationalism” crisis.
“About 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have received a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with just 1 in more than 500 in low-income countries,” she wrote in her announcement post on Twitter.
According to Thunberg, “high-income countries,” like the United States, shouldn’t move to vaccinate the young and healthy populations of their country. Instead, she argued, they should be providing vaccines to the rest of the world.
“It is completely unethical that high-income countries are now vaccinating young and healthy people if that happens at the expense of people in risk groups and on the front lines in low and middle-income countries. And this is a moral test,” Thunberg explained during an online conversation with World Health Organization Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We talked today about showing solidarity and yet vaccine nationalism is what’s running the vaccine distribution.”
Countries responsible for developing the vaccines should benefit first
As selfish as it is to say, countries that put time, money, and research into developing the COVID vaccines should have the first shot at distributing the vaccines. That doesn’t mean low-income countries and areas should never receive the vaccine. It means residents in those countries that developed the vaccines should come first.
The United States is the perfect example. Under President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, vaccine research and development were always the long-term goals. Manufacturers were provided with Emergency Use Authorizations and regulatory red tape was cut, allowing the vaccine to be produced in record time. On top of that, the Trump administration poured roughly $2 billion into vaccine development and distribution.
According to Business Insider, the government gave “Moderna $955 million to advance its clinical trials, and another $1.5 billion to manufacture and deliver 100 million vaccine doses.” Pfizer, on the other hand, “received $1.95 billion to manufacture and distribute 100 million doses, but it did not accept funding for research or development.”
For months, Americans have been told to wait their turn to get the vaccine. The number of doses was limited and that was why local health districts and doctors’ offices were instructed to limit who could sign up for a vaccine appointment. Healthcare workers were first, followed by the elderly and those working on the designated “front line” workforce.
Thunberg says people like the young and healthy shouldn’t be vaccinated, but what is the acceptable age cutoff? 40? 50? 60? The number is subjective, especially with people’s varying health conditions, jobs, and risk of exposure. There isn’t a hard and fast rule that would work.
It’s also wrong to tell a nation responsible for helping with research and development that their residents who are between the ages of 18 and 65 should wait because there are far needier people in the world. Again, that is subjective and a person’s age doesn’t determine their health. There are some healthier 65-year-olds than there are 40-year-olds. Every person is different.
This is where America’s larger problem comes into play. The world has relied on us for anything and everything. Because we’re the greatest nation in the world, everyone expects a handout, not a hand up. Whenever there’s a political conflict, we’re expected to send troops in. Whenever a national emergency strikes, we’re expected to provide aid. Now that COVID ravaged the world, we’re expected to allow our own people to suffer so other nations can benefit. At what point do we say enough is enough?
Right now, we need to protect ourselves first. We can’t render aid to anyone if our own nation is sick. We can’t send doctors and nurses to help vaccinate people if they’re here treating those who are critically ill. It’s a vicious cycle that has to stop somewhere.
There’s nothing wrong with sending out vaccines to other countries — even if it’s in small batches — so they can begin their vaccination process. That doesn’t mean that we halt all vaccinations here. It means we look out for our best interest first (which seems to be a foreign concept to many Americans).
The WHO lacks integrity
If Thunberg was serious about making sure the rest of the world is healthy, the last organization she would partner with would be the World Health Organization. Throughout this entire pandemic, the WHO has provided cover for the Chinese Communist Party. When Taiwan attempted to blow the whistle on the virus transmitting from human-to-human, back in late 2019, the WHO turned a blind eye. Instead, they continued to parrot the CCP’s talking point that there was “no clear evidence” the virus was transmitted between two people. We now know that talking point is false.
When President Trump decided to halt all flights from China in January of 2020, Dr. Tedros, WHO’s Director General, said the measure would “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” Reuters reported.
“We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent,” the organization’s head said at the time.
Since then, Dr. Anthony Fauci has credited the decision to suspend travel from China with stopping the early spread of the virus.
“I think what we’re doing is going to have an effect. And — and, for example, the president’s decision to essentially have a major blocking of travel from China, that already had an effect of not seeding the way, in Europe — Italy didn’t do that. And my — I feel so badly because I have so many friends there. They’re getting hit hard,” Fauci said last year, according to Real Clear Politics. “What we’re doing now with the other travel restrictions — so you block infections from coming in. And then within is when you have containment and mitigation. And that’s the reason why the kinds of things we’re doing that may seem like an over-reaction will keep us away from that worst-case scenario.”
While China repeatedly kept international scientists from studying the origins of the coronavirus, Dr. Tedros praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “leadership” throughout the pandemic.
“I was very encouraged and impressed by the president’s detailed knowledge of the outbreak and his personal involvement in the outbreak. This was for me a very rare leadership,” Tedros said in January of 2020, according to a report from Reuters.
On top of preventing research from taking place, China sent hundreds of thousands of faulty COVID tests and masks to various countries around the world.
Maybe, just maybe, this issue is far more complex than Thunberg realizes. There are international relationships to take into account. Solving the vaccine distribution issues means taking into account international players and their relationships with other countries. That starts with acknowledging China and the WHO’s incestuous relationship.
Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter @eb454.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.