Rich countries are pre-ordering massive quantities of the covid-19 vaccines. But what about the poorer countries who are pushed to the back of the queue?
Think of a Buddhist and perhaps you imagine the Buddha’s untroubled gaze, or someone meditating with their eyes closed. Many Buddhists celebrate the other side of our tradition this weekend with a festival that marks Sangha, or community. Yes, we close our eyes to meditate, but we do that along with friends and mentors, and in order to make a contribution to the world.
That importance of balancing our own needs with concern for others resonates with the growing debate about distributing covid vaccines. Desperate to get things back to normal, countries like the UK have put in huge pre-orders; but buying your way to the front of the queue also means that others are pushed to the back. That’s clearly unfair, and it’s even a problem from a selfish perspective because no country can be secure while the virus is unchecked elsewhere.
The leaders of the G20 countries are meeting today, with the pandemic at the top of their agenda. The UN Secretary General has urged them to fill the funding gap in getting vaccines to poorer countries. It’s not just about buying drugs. Some health systems need support. There are economic problems across the developing world. And there’s the inequality that skews access.
India has a big enough pharmaceutical industry to treat its own people, but my friends in the Dalit community, at the bottom of the caste system, tell me that systematic prejudice has already restricted their access to Covid treatments.
The widest community, for Buddhists, is not just other Buddhists, but all sentient beings, and Buddhist ethics teach that helping others and helping ourselves are really the same thing.
‘Why should I protect other people, if their suffering doesn’t cause me harm?’ asks Shantideva, the 8th Century Buddhist philosopher who advocates what you could call Buddhism with your eyes open. ‘For the same reason,’ he answers, ‘that the hand protects the foot: they’re part of the same body.’ It’s an illusion to think we’re separate from others, he says, urging us to respond to others’ suffering because it’s suffering, and just like our own.
Interconnectedness is also the lesson of a virus that knows no borders, feeds on homo sapiens regardless of wealth and ethnicity, and spreads so easily from body to body. Of course, Britain’s first responsibility is to British people, but the needs of others, especially the poorest, require us to respond, as the hand helps the foot.
