As Biden rolls out U.S. ‘vaccine diplomacy,’ he needs to start in our own hemisphere | Opinion

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Jason Marczak and Cristina Guevara
·4 min read
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Countries in desperate need of vaccines got some welcome news on Monday with the Biden administration’s announcement that up to 60 million doses of U.S.-produced AstraZeneca will be shared globally. The first priority should be our own hemisphere, where the United States is stuck playing a game of catch-up in vaccine diplomacy. In this chess game, foreign adversaries are in the lead. Quick U.S. action can avoid a checkmate.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the presence of China and Russia in Latin America and the Caribbean has expanded significantly. A few months into the pandemic, China capitalized on the moment to announce a $1 billion loan to the region to facilitate vaccine access. Today, through three of its domestically developed vaccines — Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino — China’s vaccine diplomacy extends to a dozen countries in the region. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela are using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. In a regional first, Argentina is on the cusp of beginning its own mass production of the Russian-made vaccine.

And their diplomatic gestures do not go unnoticed — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Argentina’s Alberto Fernández are just two of the region’s leaders who have publicly thanked China and Russia for their help. Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, is on a trip to Russia and China — in addition to the United States and India — to work with new vaccine partners to ensuring supply.

In less than 100 days, President Biden has made important inroads in reversing U.S. apathy as a global COVID partner. The administration previously agreed to send Mexico 2.7 million AstraZeneca doses. A ndappointing Gayle Smith as the United States’ global coronavirus coordinator was a smart move. She brings the experience needed to put the United States back on solid footing. While her profile is global, geographic proximity and economic, political and security interests demand that priority No. 1 should be Latin America and the Caribbean.

Soaring infection rates — now passing the 28 million mark for recorded cases — and a weak vaccine rollout are crippling our hemispheric partners. Brazil consistently is near the top of the world’s worst daily death toll; Peru is administering only a few thousand doses per day. And no region is more dependent on the perception of health safety for its economic recovery than the Caribbean, where COVAX delays and limited deliveries are leaving small countries scrambling to deal with Big Pharma for the vaccines. This is not sustainable, and the United States needs to intervene.

This is a defining moment for a U.S. partnership strategy in the region. If implemented properly, a holistic strategy will not only address the COVID-19 health crisis, but also position the country favorably against its global competitors on longer-term regional issues, including economic recovery, governance, hemispheric commerce and climate action.

In the short term, the top priority is for the Biden administration to address the region’s immediate health needs, especially those related to vaccine access and distribution. Getting vaccines in arms is fundamental to achieving everything else. To overcome distribution hurdles, for example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can partner with governments to help strengthen in-country logistics needed for expedient, fair and equitable vaccine distribution. In the longer term, USAID can increase assistance in research and development, disease surveillance and rapid-response capacity to ensure vaccines are distributed in a fair, ethical, and transparent way. Both agencies have provided critical technical assistance in the face of health emergencies in the past — from helping contain infectious diseases such as AIDS and Zika in the Americas to strengthening the response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

With health partnership as a starting point, COVID-19 recovery could then present an opportunity for the region to leapfrog development roadblocks and, in turn, accelerate a more-positive trajectory for the entire Western Hemisphere. Long- issues exacerbated by the pandemic require immediate attention, including rising social tensions, soaring unemployment, increased corruption, a changing climate, growing public debt and the many consequences of school closures. The United States has the opportunity to help address these issues by working with its private sector, regional governments and multilateral institutions through a partnership based on democratic values.

Failing to prioritize vaccine roll-out in the Americas cannot be an option. A Latin America and the Caribbean region that is secure, prosperous and democratic will provide stability and opportunities for the United States. Action is needed to quash the pandemic in the short term and ensure that geopolitical competitors are not in an enviable position as the region recovers in the long term.

Despite a bad opening under the previous administration, the United States now has new momentum to redefine its vaccine geopolitics moving forward.

Jason Marczak is director and Cristina Guevara is an assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. They are the lead authors of the center’s new report, “COVID-19 Recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Partnership Strategy for the Biden Administration,” written with insight from 21 advisers who represent 12 countries across the Americas.

Marczak
Marczak
Guevara
Guevara

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