America First won’t save us. We need a global response.
By Danny Kadishson
Earlier this month, world leaders met to coordinate funding, research, and eventually production of a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. did not attend.
If we continue to act alone, the coronavirus will last longer and take more American lives than if we cooperate globally and reestablish our leadership on the world stage. The isolationist, every-country-for-itself approach of the Trump Administration is making it harder for us to get the medical supplies we need to fight COVID-19. Much of the personal protective equipment our health care workers need is made in China, but we’ve been hindered by President Trump’s slowness to authorize the use of Chinese-made PPE and his unwillingness to have our federal government coordinate bulk purchases. Testing is another pillar of our road to recovery, but as Senator Chris Murphy said: “The testing swabs are made in Italy. The testing machines are made in Switzerland. The testing reagent is made in Spain and Germany. We all said that President Trump’s non-stop attacks on our European allies would have consequences. The moment of reckoning has arrived.” The final pillar of a medical response is a vaccine, yet the Trump Administration decided the U.S. would not participate in multiple initiatives to accelerate global cooperation and share research on a COVID vaccine. It is becoming clear that in a pandemic, the cost of “America First” is American lives.
On the economic side, too, President Trump’s decision to defund the World Health Organization will extend the duration of our recession, as the pandemic will boomerang between countries and back to our shores, lengthening the time before people feel comfortable going to restaurants or getting on airplanes.
While the American president is failing us, American precedent shows us a better way forward.
The leadership and structures we built surrounding our last global crisis, World War II, ushered in decades of growth and relative safety. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed him to provide military equipment to our allies. As FDR famously said:
“Suppose my neighbor’s home catches fire…. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire…I don’t say to him before that operation, “Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.”… I don’t want $15 — I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. “
In the years that followed WWII, the U.S. led the creation of the United Nations, international economic institutions, and even the World Health Organization.
Today, to protect our health and economy, we need to take three steps to help shape the global response.
First, we must collaborate with other countries. A moat doesn’t work when the enemy is already inside and lifesaving supplies are outside. The Trump Administration’s decision to not participate in global COVID vaccine initiatives, and instead rely on sanctions, tariffs, threats and immigration bans, is hurting us. At this point when the pandemic is already global, the best way forward is for countries to all bring what they have to the table and cooperate, rather than for each to struggle alone. We can hold China accountable for their sins for decades to come — but today we must prioritize PPE, medicine, and vaccines, all of which rely on global supply chains.
Second, we should help other countries, particularly developing countries. Our first priority, of course, must be to help our own citizens. But when the day comes that America finally has this virus under control, we should keep our foot on the gas to help countries around the world fight COVID. We’ve seen how easily the virus travels across political borders. In the same way we need Florida to be healthy to protect New York, we need Kenya to be healthy to protect America. And in a global health emergency, we should not allow sanctions to prevent medical supplies from reaching Iran and Venezuela — because that’s what American values dictate, and because sick people in any country will inevitably infect people in London, and Sao Paulo, and New York. If we want to limit a future, second wave of COVID in our country, we cannot ignore the rest of the world.
And third, we must re-invest in the international institutions best positioned to deal with international threats like COVID. We should participate in the multilateral frameworks that are racing towards a vaccine. And we should strengthen and improve the World Health Organization, rather than defund it as President Trump intends.
This month marked the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox. That victory was the result of a global effort, coordinated by the WHO. It will take a similarly global effort to fight COVID.
America is out our best when we assume a role of global leadership, in line with our values and our principles. Global leadership is also what is required to protect our citizens from a new pandemic that does not respect borders. Just as we did after World War II, America’s actions will help determine whether this virus, and the underlying weaknesses it exposed, are cured or only go into temporary remission. We should step up to meet the challenge.
Danny Kadishson is co-lead of the Trade Expert Group for the Truman National Security Project and is the founder of Good Speech. He previously served in the NYC Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, the NYC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College and a M.A. in International Security Studies from the National Defense University. The views reflected are his own.
