The COVID-19 pandemic has already proved that it has considerable influence on the contemporary world. It has brought unpredictable changes to the lives of people all over the globe by affecting their health, travel and life plans, and daily routine. However, individuals’ everyday life is not the only sphere that has been profoundly impacted by the novel virus. Various researches have already concluded that the negative consequences brought by the coronavirus affect essential industries, such as tourism, healthcare, and the economy. For instance, there exists a risk of governments potentially restricting access to pandemic supplies, eventually bringing severe problems to international business. Therefore, this paper will prove that it is vital for the countries to organize their efforts and ensure that pandemic supplies are distributed all over the world.
Several countries are currently trying to nationalize the pandemic supplies without an understanding of what consequences it will bring to their relationships with other states. For instance, as mentioned by Farrell and Newman (2020), a Chinese newspaper published an article claiming that “the development of vaccine is a battle that China cannot afford to lose” (para. 1). The article meant that China cannot rely on the United States and Europe and will not provide access to the vaccine (Farrell & Newman, 2020). In addition, the USA was not interested in sharing their vaccine. The administration of Trump wanted to ensure sole access to the pandemic supplies without sharing them with other governments (Farrell & Newman, 2020). However, countries should realize that such protectionism can prolong the pandemic making it harder for the states to recover from a long period of uncertainty. Besides, the restriction of foreign access to pandemic supplies will harden the coordination of effective international response to the pandemic. Trust between the states will be broken, resulting in potential communication issues in the future.
In addition to worsening trust between the countries, a nationalization of vital pandemic resources will have an adverse effect on global business. Even though enterprises, not engaged in the healthcare system, to not pay attention to global healthcare politics, they need to understand what adverse consequences the restriction on the use of the vaccine will bring. Farrell and Newman (2020) concluded that “the coronavirus is not just hitting demand and supply and sending the world into a recession” (para. 2) The pandemic is also reorganizing the relationship between markets and states (Farrell & Newman, 2020). In case governments continue to restrict access to vaccines for foreign nations, the business will continue to suffer. A constant mistrust between the countries can potentially break global cooperation in fighting the virus, maintaining the severe economic disruption, and stopping the operations of global supply chains.
That is why those industries involved in the production and distribution of medical supplies should work as actively as the ones that are currently developing possible remedies for the cure and prevention of coronavirus. If an effective vaccine is developed quickly, it will not only protect people against the infection and reduce the transmission of the virus but also benefit the global business. Potentially restricting foreign access to pandemic supplies will negatively influence the relationships between counties and harm international trade. Consequently, the following paper proved that governments need to put much effort into cooperating for a successful outcome of the pandemic situation.
Reference
Farrell, H., & Newman, A. (2020). Will governments restrict foreign access to pandemic supplies?Harvard Business Review. Web.