If a Chinese Vaccine is the Most Effective

     Who might develop a vaccine first? How may that affect politics? As I have discussed earlier in this lecture, the pandemic and politics have become greatly intertwined. When the pandemic is brought up politics are brought up and vice-versa. Yet, politics may be a way to put an end or at least find a vaccine for the coronavirus. Today, however, I want to focus on the imagining what would happen if a China Covid vaccine proved to be the most effective in the world.

    If China came out with the world's most effective Covid-19 vaccine there would be a change in global politics in various ways. Probably the most obvious is that it would affect the the relationship between the U.S. and China. As is known, right now the relationship between the U.S. and China is not great at the moment, especially since the beginning of this pandemic. If China were to actually come out with an effective vaccine, the United States would have no choice but to give up its pride in order to be able to receive/get the vaccine. The United States would most likely try to form a cooperation/alliance of some sort with China after a vaccine was released. However, would the country of China agree after all the dispute that has gone on between the countries, specifically the accusations about who's fault the pandemic is? Would China even offer it's vaccine to the U.S.? If China had an effective vaccine it would gain great power and leverage over the United States. Whatever happens politically between the U.S. and China (if China was to develop an effective vaccine) would solely depend on who wins the U.S. presidential election occurring right now. With both candidates having different viewpoints on economics, trade, and international alliances, the outcome of how the U.S. reacts to China developing a vaccine would be vastly different.

    China would also benefit immensely if they developed a vaccine against the coronavirus from many other countries. Their influence in Southeast Asia and Africa would only grow more and more. However, many countries (even if the vaccine was approved) would probably still be skeptic because of the recent accusations of hacking information from multiple countries, especially the United States. On the other hand many people may believe that China would have the very best vaccine as they may understand Covid-19 better than most countries because it was the country with the first known case. Some countries may not even get the doses of vaccines they needed, based on whether or not the vaccine is distributed equally.

    I could come up with multiple scenarios of what may occur if China were to develop a vaccine, but one thing that remains constant is the fact that China would gain great political power over many countries even the strongest countries such as Russia and the U.S. How much better would it be if these countries would fairly communicate and work together to develop a vaccine? A vaccine would probably already have been developed! Unfortunately, this is not the case. One nation will develop a vaccine and gain leverage and power over others. Who will this nation be? Only time can tell.