Please Explain podcast: Vaccine diplomacy and the post-COVID world order
We're eight months into the coronavirus pandemic and of 44 vaccines in human trials around the world, eleven of them are undergoing mass efficacy trials known as "stage three".
Four of the eleven are being developed by Chinese companies and are being trialled in multiple countries, including Bangladesh.
While wealthy nations such as Australia have rushed to secure "me first" deals for the most promising vaccines, Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised the Chinese vaccines will be declared a global public good and prioritise developing nations in their distribution.
In a year when China's relationship with many countries could be summated as "frosty", vaccine diplomacy may have the potential to repair its image around the world.
In this episode, national editor Tory Maguire is joined by south-east Asia correspondent James Massola to dissect the geopolitics of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Tory is the national editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She has held senior roles at a number of major Australian mastheads and was most recently editor-in-chief of HuffPost Australia for two-and-a-half years.