Global Teamwork: Crisis, Cooperation, Conflict
International bodies like the WHO face major tests addressing global crises like pandemics, needing better cooperation despite national interests.
Topics: politics, individual and values
Example
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. With Gavi and CEPI it launched COVAX to share vaccines fairly. COVAX missed its goal of 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 as rich countries bought up supply, but by the time it closed at the end of 2023 it had delivered nearly 2 billion doses to 146 economies. The WHO itself was weakened when the United States, its largest funder, left on 22 January 2026.
Key facts
- The WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020.
- COVAX closed at the end of 2023 having delivered nearly 2 billion vaccine doses to 146 economies.
Limitations
- COVAX's results are judged differently depending on whether one stresses its late delivery in 2021 or its eventual reach; and the effects of the US exit on the WHO were still unfolding when this record was checked.
Evaluations
politics evaluation
Support
COVAX eventually delivered nearly 2 billion doses, showing that a pooled international scheme can reach countries that could not buy vaccines alone.
Counterargument
The US exit from the WHO in 2026, after it criticised the agency's handling of COVID-19, shows how national politics can undo cooperation.
Rebuttal
Other members kept the WHO going and adopted a Pandemic Agreement in 2025, so cooperation continued without its largest funder, though with less money.
Additional support
The WHO can only advise; it cannot force states to share data or vaccines, which limits what any reform can achieve.
individual and values evaluation
Support
COVAX was built on the value that people's chance of protection should not depend on their country's wealth.
Counterargument
Voters expect their own governments to protect them first, so leaders who share scarce vaccines early may lose public support.
Rebuttal
In a pandemic, protecting others also protects oneself by slowing new variants, so the two values point the same way more than they seem.
Additional support
Health workers in poorer countries waited months for doses that low-risk people in rich countries received first, a vivid test of global fairness.
Sources
- World Health Organization (2020-01-30): Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
- Medical Laboratory Observer (2023-12-18): COVID-19 vaccinations shift to regular immunization as COVAX draws to a close
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2026-01-22): HHS Fact Sheet: U.S. Withdrawal from the World Health Organization