Is “Vaccine Apartheid” the Right Expression? On Finding the Right Word for the Wrong Thing

(The following was commissioned by an op-ed editor but then rejected by the editorial board because it did not convey the publication's desired political objectives. As a leftist writer, my position on this particular issue is unwelcome it seems with leftist and centrist publications, or perhaps it's just not very-well written. Either way, I sent it to others and none were interested. Instead of leaving it to the gnawing of digital decay, here it is...)

The term “vaccine apartheid” has emerged recently, including in Asia Times and The Guardian, to describe the problem of some developed countries, most notably the US, hoarding vaccine and preventing global access, with the global south worst affected.

Other terms have also circulated, including “vaccine diplomacy,” the practice of providing access to vaccines to allies as part of some broader strategic competition, or to others as a means for extracting foreign policy concessions.

Although these two terms don’t refer precisely to the same problem, it’s proper to note and assess them together. The first is intentionally provocative, even inflammatory, the second is also dark, but more sober in its description. I will argue the first term is a mistake.

The weaponization of words is nothing new. Words like genocide, holocaust, and apartheid are used gratuitously on the left and the right, in part because they express genuine anger and angst, in part because they fit our soundbite/clickbait culture and can be used to rally support.

But there are three problems with these types of mischaracterizations. The first is that it trivializes and exploits real historical atrocities. For example, if we examine in detail the long and tragic history of apartheid in South Africa and Namibia, which lasted almost five decades, is it fair to associate that catastrophe with what we’re seeing now? If we make this comparison, are we cheapening our understanding of that history, and does this harm in a way those victims once again? This same argument holds for calling what’s happening in Xinjiang genocide.

Second, when terms like apartheid or genocide are used to describe contemporary phenomena that aren’t, it adds more violence to the situation, insomuch as it dehumanizes the accused, and perhaps egregiously. As a tactic, this rarely produces the desired result. It rarely shames the accused into changing his behavior. More likely, it’s dismissed as extremism or countered by more extremism, as in, “You’re guilty of apartheid,” “Well you’re guilty of genocide,” leading to a downward spiral into more hate and distrust.

Third, the actual problems associated with vaccine diplomacy and the like, when expressed as “vaccine apartheid,” risk being obscured by the term. It’s not just the global south at risk—continental Europe has struggled to gain sufficient access, as has Japan. And not all global south countries lack the capacity to produce and distribute vaccines, including most notably China and India.

From J'Accuse…! to Metaphysische Schuld?

Despite these concerns, I hesitate to criticize those in the struggle. First, because tactics

used when fighting for survival should be held to a different standard than those seeking an accurate academic accounting. Furthermore, it’s better to express a quiet solidarity, in other words, to keep one’s mouth shut, within reason, even when the more acceptable side resorts to incorrect words or actions.

Second, I hesitate because I have benefitted personally from the American vaccination scheme, having been stuck in the US with travel restrictions since late 2019. And while the problem facing the US now is unvaccinated young people getting sick and a large number of anti-vaxxer adults declining the vaccine, many of us who have received it have felt a tremendous sense of relief, posting selfies with our vaccine cards and congratulating each other for surviving.

The term “vaccine apartheid” in some respects is the new “J’Accuse…!” In fact, I don’t feel guilty about surviving or being vaccinated. I don’t feel what Karl Jaspers called “metaphysical guilt,” which he coined to describe the guilt of Germans who didn’t support the Nazis but did little if anything to oppose them. Rather, Americans also lived through the terror of the pandemic, with many parts of the country the worst affected in the world at the time. More than a half million are dead. I personally know several who’ve perished from it, and scores who were infected. I’ve seen the cumulative effects destroy relationships, increase hunger, alcoholism, and drug abuse, and diminish people in many ways, including children.

The US was fundamentally incapable of the sort of effective controls and governance that slowed and stopped the spread elsewhere, and the vaccine has always been its fallback, its silver bullet. While this doesn’t justify hoarding vaccine now or extracting foreign policy benefits from those who are granted access, we shouldn’t forget that millions of Americans were also victimized by this outbreak or that few paid a higher price than American minorities and the vulnerable poor, including workers—on top of already difficult circumstances, like hate crimes, police brutality, losing their vote, and so on. So let it be said that clinging to the vaccine is partly a tactical, partly emotional reaction to those crushing defeats which are still not fully resolved.

Surviving Covid Capitalism and Vaccine Diplomacy

Last November, I published a piece in South China Morning Post titled, “US is Infected with ‘Pandemic Capitalism’ as Markets Incentivise Suffering.” There I developed the concept of “pandemic capitalism” to describe the broader problems of our times, acknowledging a debt to Naomi Klein’s term “disaster capitalism” from her prescient book, The Shock Doctrine (2007), published just before 2008’s Global Financial Crisis.

I emphasized the problem of profits over people as companies and executives saw record returns while the working class, especially women and minorities, were hurt. I discussed how the reliance on a vaccine to solve our problems put us at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry—already responsible for many of our social ills, including most infamously in recent times the opioid crisis.

Additionally, social distancing, online education and the like had not only made us more dependent on and vulnerable to technology firms and social media, it has also saw their profits and power surge. Furthermore, I concluded that the market was incentivizing suffering as it gamed government for contracts and bailouts.

To expect the market to save us, to expect nationalism or capitalism—two sides of the same awful ontology according to Marxists—is to mistake the poison for the cure. Additionally, to cry from the margins that the developed world must save the developing world risks neglecting the absurdity that has always placed one above the other. It also suggests the periphery needs the center to save it, and for some, this smacks of calling on the old masters while avoiding local responsibility, and thereby reinscribing a colonial narrative.

For example, many experts now point to a relaxing of containment efforts and recent widely observed public religious festivals as accelerating the new surge in India. We also saw surges after Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US due to the same reasons. The results are heartbreaking, particularly now as India suffers. But is this due to vaccine apartheid or local irresponsibility?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/12/india-thousands-join-hindu-festival-ritual-bath-as-covid-surges

By contrast, China restricted travel and gatherings during the Chinese New Year, their biggest holiday and usually the most travelled period on earth. The British imposed restrictions during the winter holidays. No one liked it but the results speak for themselves. Vaccines help, but where controls have worked thus far has been due largely to other factors.

My words might also seem cruel, above all from an American who’s fully vaccinated, well-employed, and allowed to work online. But they are the correct words and fit our cruel moment. Let’s avoid terms that misrepresent and make matters worse. Let’s oppose vaccine diplomacy and work to ensure global containment and recovery, including global access to the vaccine. Otherwise we all risk more years of covid capitalism and its multitude of intersecting ills, including more surges and dehumanizing language like apartheid and genocide.