This commentary is by Fred Baser of Bristol, a former legislator, a current commissioner at the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and the District-9 Environmental Board, and a board member of Addison County Home Health and Hospice.
The Covid-19 pandemic is changing the world right in front of us. Major events such as the pandemic often provide opportunities for change that can positively benefit millions of people.
The pandemic presents us with just such an action step that can advance democracy, statesmanship, and free markets to countries that in recent years may have questioned our commitment to those ideals.
The U.S. and our free nation partners should step forward with a plan to inoculate people in countries around the world where quantities of vaccines are minimal.
Thanks to the hard work and capabilities of many drug companies, and government’s commitment to developing vaccines, in less than a year Americans and people in other developed nations were receiving vaccinations. Today, many Americans are being set free from the fears of contracting the Covid virus. With an 80%-plus rate of inoculation, Vermont’s daily new case numbers are single digits.
Distributing vaccines and inoculating people in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Guatemala, Honduras, Malaysia and the Ukraine, where inoculation rates are all well under 10%, according to The New York Times as of June 20, can show the world how democracy, free markets, and focus on citizens can benefit all.
By making a huge commitment to export our vaccines, we take a big step toward eliminating the disease’s spread, much like what has occurred with smallpox and polio, and we will save millions of lives around the world.
Post-World War II, the U.S. instituted the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. We also dedicated millions to assisting Japan recover from a devastating war. Our leadership at this time was welcomed and it helped millions of Japanese and Europeans improve their quality of life. America was the North Star for much of the world. We can be again.
This idea about the U.S. stepping forward to help the world combat the Covid-19 virus is not mine alone. This thought has been expressed by others. What does surprise me is the lack of enthusiasm by our nation’s leaders to charge ahead with a program to help other nations, especially when the U.S. and many developed nations have far more vaccine than needed to serve their people.
One would have thought that one announcement coming out of the recent G-7 meeting would have been an agreement on a sweeping global vaccination program. Instead, there was just a nod to the problem.
Covid-19 has killed over 4 million people around the world. It will kill millions more unless we take action globally. We have enough vaccine and we have the resources to deliver that vaccine to the millions of people yet vulnerable. Do we have the vision?
