'It's very frustrating'

World leaders know Covid-19 will never be beaten until every nation, rich or poor, is blanketed with vaccines. But they also understand that doling out doses to foreigners before their own people are taken care of is political self sabotage.

The gap in vaccine availability between wealthy and developing nations is becoming more “grotesque” every day, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday. The world’s most powerful nation, the US, has been slow to corral a global effort to get vaccines for everyone. Marinating in the bitterness of Brexit, the UK and European Union are locked in an ugly showdown over vaccine exports. Meanwhile, entire nations are being overcome by new viral surges: In Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has made a politicized hash of the pandemic, hospitals warn they're running out of drugs necessary to keep patients intubated.

The vaccine race has emphasized a trend stirred by a wave of populism in the West — the revival of the nation-state. The advantage goes to countries with deep pockets and pharmaceutical capacities that can churn out the completed vaccines. This is despite the fact that chemical components of the dose rely on a global supply chain. Winners in the vaccine race like Israel, the UK and now the US boast of their success — especially since it’s covering up their blushes at botching earlier efforts to stifle the virus.

The WHO says countries should prioritize health workers and high-risk populations everywhere in the world, before vaccinating their own healthy citizens who are at low risk of dying from the virus. No one is doing that, though Washington has started to make some limited moves to improve access: It’s “lending” 2.5 million AstraZeneca doses to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada, and leading an effort that also includes India, Japan and Australia to get a billion vaccines to countries in Asia. More choices will loom when the supply of doses in the US outstrips the number of Americans willing to take them.

No one will be free of Covid until everyone is free. But domestic politics ensure that when it comes to vaccines, charity begins at home.

The world and America

Saudi Arabia proposed a new ceasefire deal in Yemen.

Fire swept through thousands of homes in a Rohingya refugee camp.

And spiders and snakes are swarming Australian homes.

Meanwhile in America, House Democrats face backlash for investigating a Republican win in Iowa.

Multiple people were killed after a gunman opened fire in a Colorado grocery store.

And there’s a computer chip shortage.

'It's very frustrating'

Every day lately seems to bring a new plunge in US relations with China.

After the Biden administration’s first acrimonious talks with Xi Jinping’s envoys in Alaska last week, Washington ripped the seal off new sanctions designed to punish Beijing’s repression of Uyghur Muslims.

In a step coordinated with the European Union and the UK, the White House targeted two Chinese officials in the most sweeping sign yet of its effort to build a broad front against Beijing. The sanctions hammer was followed by a joint statement alleging gross human rights abuses in Xinjiang Province by the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, including the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also accused Beijing of committing “genocide” against Uyghurs imprisoned in detention camps.

The news brought cheer to demonstrators outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday. “Steps like that give us hope. But it's all been extremely slow,” said Rushan Abbas, a prominent Uyghur-American activist, who says her sister has been detained in Xinjiang. She hasn’t heard from her in two-and-a-half years, she told Meanwhile.

Abbas wants action not just against isolated Chinese officials but for everyone in the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo and any officials involved in running internment camps there, as well as a global boycott of products from the northwestern region. But while the fate of the Uyghurs is finally beginning to spur international action, the modest size of the rally – which drew around 15 people – emphasized the massive power imbalance between China and those pushing for it to be held accountable.

“It’s very frustrating. The Chinese regime is spending millions and millions of dollars to spread misinformation and propaganda saying that this is not happening,” Abbas told Meanwhile.

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