Blinken can make Alaska safer and compete with China by sharing excess COVID-19 vaccines

This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Alaska to meet with his Chinese counterparts to discuss the United States-China relationship. But unless the United States begins sharing vaccines globally, it’s China who threatens to win the battle for global influence.

Last week, the United States announced a partnership with Australia, Japan and India to help deliver one billion vaccine doses to Asia by 2022. The move, which does not require the United States to share its growing stockpile of excess vaccine doses, was largely viewed as an attempt to compete with China’s growing global influence. China has embarked on an elaborate campaign to use vaccine diplomacy to build deeper partnerships with countries around the world. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the country is planning to give free vaccines to nearly 70 countries and export commercial vaccines to 28 additional countries. Meanwhile, the United States still has not released a plan for sharing its excess doses.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the United States rushed to enter vaccine deals in an attempt to speed up manufacturing and hedge its bets in case one or several vaccines were not viable. But as more and more vaccines have become available, hedging has turned into hoarding. According to analysis from The ONE Campaign, the United States has secured over 550 million excess vaccine doses. While these doses are not in our possession today, they will be in the near future. And when that time comes, the Biden administration must have a clear plan in place for deploying them.

Last week, President Joe Biden stated his desire to share excess doses once Americans are vaccinated. “If we have a surplus, we’re going to share it with the rest of the world,” he said. “We’re going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of first, but we’re then going to try to help the rest of the world.”

We are in a race against this deadly virus. As long as the virus remains unchecked anywhere, COVID remains a threat. So far, nearly 1 in 3 Alaskans have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. But as the pandemic spreads, new and more dangerous variants threaten to undermine the effectiveness of those vaccines. It’s therefore in our enlightened self-interest to defeat this virus everywhere, quickly, in order to better protect Alaskans.

While it’s encouraging to see that the Biden administration will begin sharing some unused doses, more must be done to ensure vaccines are directed to those countries in greatest need. At a minimum, the Biden administration should build on its National Security Memorandum and develop a clear plan for distributing excess vaccine doses while simultaneously vaccinating the United States’ domestic population. While politically challenging, the United States should also consider going one step further by sharing additional excess doses with low-income countries once we hit a certain level of coverage. French President Emmanuel Macron has endorsed the idea of giving a small percentage -- roughly 4-5% of available domestic doses -- to low-income countries, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also indicated interest. This would not only help end the pandemic faster, but also help compete with China.

Vaccines are currently the hottest commodity on earth. Right now, China is offering millions of vaccines to low-income countries while the United States is offering nothing. When it comes to vaccines, something is certainly better than nothing.

For decades the United States has long been a leader in global health. You need only ask Rep. Don Young how the United States’ bipartisan work on fighting the global AIDS epidemic has not only saved countless lives but also brought us enormous international goodwill. The U.S. can and must lead this global health fight, too.

Not only is America’s global reputation at stake, so too is our economy. A recent International Chamber of Commerce study found the global economy stands to lose as much as $9.2 trillion if governments fail to ensure developing economy access to COVID-19 vaccine. And it’s mostly wealthy countries, like the United States, who will fit the bill. Safe, effective vaccines are key to ending the pandemic, reopening the global economy and restoring international travel, but only if the most vulnerable, everywhere, have access to them.

We have the resources to ensure every American has access to a vaccine and provide excess doses to countries who need them. So why shouldn’t we use our surplus for good and better protect Alaskans?

Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it best this month when he said, “We will not be fully secure until the world is vaccinated, not just Americans.” The only way to end this global health crisis anywhere is to beat it everywhere. The Biden administration can make Alaska safer and compete with China’s vaccine diplomacy by sharing excess vaccine doses as quickly as possible.

Sue Stone is an Anchorage-based volunteer with The ONE Campaign, a bipartisan, global organization campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.