It is both tragic and absurd that we have not seriously tried to vaccinate everyone in the world against the coronavirus.  This is a global public health crisis, and we need a global campaign and free, plentiful vaccines, many more than are forthcoming from the current World Health Organization COVAX initiative.  Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece, said that perhaps the worst thing that he did was to use the virus to divide the country instead of to unite us.  With saner U.S. leadership, we could be in a very different place right now with most Democrats and Republicans working together to stop the virus.  With more responsible global leadership, the world could be in a very different place in this fight for survival.  Let me return to this in a moment.

Our planet is in crisis.  In addition to the coronavirus, we face multiple, fundamental, even existential threats.  Climate catastrophe looms.  Widespread poverty and hunger kill too many, rampant inequality yields a precarious life for billions of people, nuclear disaster or war or is an ever-present possibility, conflict and violence is ubiquitous, hate, prejudice, authoritarianism, and nativism is on the rise, and more.

What is humanity to do?  We have the potential for a bountiful, beautiful, peaceful world, but how can we get there?  For the past 20 years, I have taught a university graduate course looking at alternatives to our present social and economic systems.  At some point in most years, someone brings up stories from films and books of alien invasions.  In these stories, it is the threat of conflict with people from other planets that unites the people of Earth to recognize their common humanity and common destiny.  I always say that I hope we will not have to wait for an alien invasion to do so.

But we have had an alien invasion – the coronavirus – and that time should be now.  This should have been the time – and it still can be – to mobilize the planet against this alien threat.  That would mean that all relevant countries institute something like the U.S.’s Defense Production Act and require private industry to produce and distribute the billions of vaccines needed as soon as possible.  This should be an immediate global, coordinated effort.

I always bristle when I hear Dr. Fauci and others talk of the need to vaccinate many more in the U.S. in order to lower the possibility of even worse mutations of the virus arising.  Yes, of course, everyone should get vaccinated, but the dangers from mutations in the U.S. is minor compared to the dangers of mutations from around our mostly unvaccinated world.  And, as we have seen, those mutations travel quickly.  Vaccinating the world is a moral imperative but it is also in our self-interest.  We in the U.S. will not be protected until the whole world is protected.

Naomi Klein calls the climate crisis a “civilizational wake-up call.”  So should the coronavirus be.  Klein argues that conservatives must see climate change as a hoax because, if not, they will have lost the “central ideological battle of our time – whether we need to plan our societies to reflect our goals and values, or whether that task can be left to the magic of the market…how can you win an argument against government intervention when the very habitability of the planet depends on intervening.”

I know many people are afraid of strengthening global governance mechanisms, but to survive, let alone thrive, humanity may have no choice.  We are already considering global rules on taxation.  In 2015, the United Nations voted unanimously to approve attaining by 2030 17 Sustainable Development Goals including no poverty, zero hunger, quality education, climate action, clean water and sanitation, decent work, reduced inequality, peace and justice, and more.

For these goals not to be empty promises, we need much more global action, coordination, and governance.  Perhaps someday, countries will even be considered anachronisms.  I certainly value the history and culture of my country and of other countries I have visited.  But I also recognize the common humanity I have seen everywhere.  We all share certain hopes, desires, sensibilities.  We also share common problems.  If human beings and our planet are going to survive the coronavirus’ immediate threat and overcome our longer-run challenges, we need saner and fairer ways of governing our lives together.  Being born to an advantaged family in an advantaged country is an accident of birth.  It should not make the difference between life and death.