Everyone talks about ‘vaccine nationalism’ these days, even though what it means differs widely from country to country. For some, such as India, national self-reliance and ‘vaccine maitri’, friendship and diplomacy, are not far afield. By March 15th 2021, 58 million doses of Indian-made vaccines had been exported to 71 countries. On June 6th 2020, 9 months earlier, Smita Srinivas had been invited to speak to the next generation of potential Indian diplomats, Global Youth, an organisation of college students interested in foreign policy and global challenges. The topic? you guessed it: Healthcare Diplomacy, now practically a household term. Before Covid, this was specialist terrain mostly narrowed to clinicians and virologists. The pandemic has made it necessary to have wider public debates on sustained health and wellbeing and the new diplomacy of healthcare. The ecological consequences of pandemics including on people, animals, and food systems has also been well discussed. Countries and their domestic stakeholders may traditionally develop selective foreign relations that work for better domestic healthcare, but this approach is increasingly challenged by rapidly shifting global supply chains and the ecological consequences of high growth trade and connectedness. We discussed the issues of make versus buy when thinking of vaccines, antibiotics, equipment and other therapies.
