Global Public Sociology Conversations: Global Solidarity and Cooperation, Human Rights and Vaccine Equity

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of our mutual interdependence and the need for collective and coordinated global effort and action, anchored in solidarity, to combat this threat. Yet, despite the threat that COVID-19 (as well as the attendant climate change crisis) poses to our humanity, global responses to combat the pandemic mirror the deep inequalities of our world. The refrain of “we are all in this together” has not yielded the desired results: i.e. sharing global commons such as vaccines and other medical treatment regimes. We have seen increasing “jungle survivalist” tactics from wealthy countries of the global north in terms of vaccine inequity and hoarding, and more recently, racist travel bans following the emergence of Delta and Omicron variants. Meanwhile, mutations of the virus continue to threaten and devastate the lives and economies of all countries (vaccinated and unvaccinated alike). In this conversation, our panel of experts will discuss issues around solidarity, vaccine apartheid/inequity, global health and environment and human rights. More information is available on the department of sociology news section.