COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine geopolitics

Abstract

COVID-19 investigates and reveals the intersections of public health and geopolitics at various scales and locations. The existing literature focuses on geopolitical health determinants. It has also been demonstrated how populist nationalism influences public responses to disease. COVID-19 is being portrayed in a popular geopolitical context, with expertise being called into question, conspiracies being spread, lockdowns being contested, mask-wearing and vaccination being mocked. Calls to keep "foreign" pathogens and viruses out of national territory enable extraordinary measures, xenophobic politics, and increased border and border-related surveillance.Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was in the grip of a COVID-19 vaccination crisis. COVID-19 vaccines were previously only available in limited quantities and were only available to high-income countries with bilateral agreements with vaccine pharmaceutical manufacturers. Because some countries and pharmaceutical companies prioritized bilateral agreements, the quandary over vaccine quantities and accessibility had reached critical levels of inefficiency. There has been a "moral failure," leaving the world's most vulnerable people behind. As a result, rich and poor countries must collaborate to establish priorities based on a geopolitical-epidemiological approach that first identifies countries that are most vulnerable and bear the brunt of the pandemic's burden.