Vaccine Diplomacy

The Covid-19 pandemic marks the first time in modern history that all of humanity has experienced the same invisible public health menace at once. It has also revealed deep fractures in the multilateral approach to vaccine distribution – with production hoarded and even blocked, and with many countries left to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the abdication of US leadership and hoping to showcase their own global health leadership, China, India and Russia are donating millions of doses to countries but with strings attached which are not always evident to recipient countries. Everything now seems more political and the pandemic is no exception.

This panel of international experts and journalists will discuss the current dire situation, the hidden costs for countries accepting vaccine donations, how soft power is being flexed, and what the playing field could look like in future pandemics.

 

 

Moderated by Michael Bociurkiw.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Syra Madad is an American pathogen preparedness expert and infectious disease epidemiologist.

 

 

 

 

 

Cordelia Lynch is a US Correspondent for Sky News

 

 

 

 

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the SOAS University of London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Nemtsova, permanent Moscow correspondent for The Daily Beast.