Multilateralism the best weapon to use against COVID-19

The maxim “nobody is safe until everybody is safe” should have been adopted by the international community in its common fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has disrupted the world. Instead, we have witnessed and sensed distrust, dissent, denial and even conspiracy and competition from all states and non-state actors when dealing with the pandemic.

More than 18 months have lapsed since the start of this crisis and the world looks stagnant and its people confused, still grappling to understand the origin of the pandemic, the speed of its spread, and the new variants and their impact on vaccinated people. That is if we believe vaccines to be the key weapon in the arsenal deployed to ensure the world, its population and its economy can resume life as normal in the not too distant future.

In the UK, we are told that this future is close — July 19, to be exact. But the expected freedom from lockdowns, social distancing and even mask wearing might be a mirage if variants of concern keep filtering through the country’s seemingly open borders and airport arrival halls. In London, the government is setting the stage to drop quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated Britons returning from medium-risk amber list countries, but what about non-Britons arriving from countries that are today listed as safe, but which could be placed on the red list tomorrow?

Travel, as we have seen recently, is the driver of the global economy and, unless a multilateral approach is adopted to regulate the safety of this sector, disruption is likely to become the norm.

Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, last week called for international action to end the confusion on travel via a worldwide solution. He said there was still a confusing lack of agreement between countries on which vaccines are accepted as valid, different testing standards and different COVID-19 “passports,” showing people’s vaccination status.

The Tony Blair Institute has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to take on an expanded role in bringing uniformity to vaccines, testing and COVID-19 passports. The think tank even suggested that national governments, particularly those of the G20 nations, should empower the WHO to take the lead on a new travel framework.

Alternatively, the world will likely oscillate between lockdown and freedom for many years to come, as scientists around the world have repeatedly predicted in the last 12 months that the virus is here to stay.

It is not difficult to see this disrupted state of affairs, such as with the EU and Switzerland agreeing to recognize each other’s vaccination certificates, while the UK has scrapped its plan to issue official vaccine passports or certificates. Though the EU is supposed to be one bloc, France last week warned its citizens against traveling to Spain or Portugal due to spikes in infections recorded there.

On another front, the EU has proposed to Russia a joint recognition plan for their vaccination certificates, but Moscow has approved four different vaccines that are produced in the country, none of which the EU has approved. Likewise, Russia has not approved the use of any foreign vaccines.

This list could go further, pointing to more disruption and a lack of uniformity in rules that could suffocate the virus.

Australia has raised its lockdown levels due to an increase in infections, while Thailand has locked down Bangkok. After airlifting oxygen to Indian hospitals a few weeks ago, countries like the Philippines and Indonesia are now battling to treat an ever-growing number of infections.

I am not trying to paint a grim picture here or belittle the efforts of care workers, governments, the scientific sector and nongovernmental organizations across the globe, who are working hard to save lives, restrict infections and ultimately tame the virus.

To combat the spread of this deadly virus, it would be reasonable to have a worldwide approach, but this remains elusive. Last month’s G7 summit in Cornwall, UK, called for better cooperation in order to help poorer countries get the vaccine. The EU is continuing its efforts to provide vaccine doses for all its people after a slow start, while also aiming to provide an EU-wide vaccine passport to help reopen its states’ economies. Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, has called for an emergency summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries to be held virtually this week. The economies of this regional grouping last year suffered their biggest contraction since the Second World War, with 81 million jobs lost. Ardern hopes the APEC leaders can make their vaccine rollouts more efficient and discuss the steps their respective governments can take to protect jobs and their economies.

One can only hope that leaders around the world digest and act on that one fact that nobody is safe until all are safe, and maybe follow up on the Tony Blair Institute’s calls or even build on Ardern’s move. A summit like APEC’s could become a world summit that initiates a road map for ridding the world of the pandemic this year, next year or in 10 years. It could at least agree to harmonize procedures in the hope of taming the pandemic’s effects on people and maybe offer a lifeline to the crippled world economy, which might suffer further if world leaders don’t act soon.

• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.