Short Take: A Vaccine From Elsewhere

Who doesn’t want a vaccine for COVID-19?

So why was my initial relief at hearing Oxford and Imperial are racing away to develop the vaccine followed by worry?

Let’s suppose that Oxford does develop the first vaccine. What happens next?

Most people, rational people, wouldn’t ask this question. It wouldn’t even dawn on them to ask this question, because the goal is the development of a vaccine to save mankind. Oops, did I say man-kind?

We’ll forget the lessons that the pandemic has taught us so far: that the UK and the US are in fact not exceptions at the global stage. That we are not only vulnerable but can also afford to learn lessons from countries, regardless of whether we have a special relationship with them – such as South Korea. That being white, male and Oxford-educated may not be the only criteria for effective leadership (the countries whose responses have been most widely praised, Germany and New Zealand among others, are all led by women).

It’s not that Dr. Emily Cousens, who researches vulnerability and gender at Oxford Brookes university and teaches on the women’s studies masters course at University of Oxford, but that she doesn’t want one to be developed by white, make, Oxford-educated Brits. Better that people die than the people she hates save them.