Monday Memo #89: Stanford Professor Advocates for Pandemic Equity for India
By Noah Howard and Jackson Vachal
Start your week off right, with a (slightly-late) round-up of Stanford-related news from Stanford Politics.
Stanford Professor Advocates for India, Pandemic Equity
As wealthy countries continue relatively successful vaccine rollouts, a surge of COVID-19 has devastated the world’s largest democracy. India, with almost 1.4 billion residents, is facing a catastrophic resurgence of the virus, reporting 380,000 new cases and 3,500 deaths each day, and scientists roundly agree that these are drastic underestimates. The South Asian nation is the world’s largest vaccine producer and exporter, yet only 9% of its population has had even one dose and many areas are running out of supplies. These low vaccination rates, along with the emergence of new, more transmissible and more deadly virus strains, and the relaxation of social distancing mandates have converged to overwhelm the Indian healthcare system. In a recent Washington Post opinion article, Manu Prakash, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health and co-author Madhukar Pai of McGill University urged nations across the world to come to India’s aid and to fight the virus from a global perspective. Prakash and Pai detail not only the grim situation in India, but also its spillover effect on nearby South Asian countries and the potential for calamitous surges in less-developed lacking sufficient medical infrastructure. They argued that quickly vaccinating wealthy countries is not sufficient to avoid continuous resurgences driven by new and quickly-mutating viral strains. Instead, they urged leaders across the world to work together, share vaccine recipes and technologies, and allow more nations to produce vaccines. Said Prakash and Pai, “India is a cautionary tale for the world. It is proof that we cannot fight this pandemic country by country. By the time we put out one fire, we will have to fight another. World leaders must think beyond their borders and do the right thing for all of humanity.”
Growing Number of Colleges Require COVID-19 Vaccinations
As the school year wanes, over 100 colleges and universities have announced that they will require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to return for the fall semester, according to the New York Times. Less than a month ago, only 14 higher education institutions had announced such requirements. Most student vaccination mandates have mostly occurred at private colleges, although some public schools have adopted them as well. These mandates come amidst growing discussions about how the nation will transition toward normalcy after living for more than a year with varying levels of lifestyle restrictions. The role of college students and other young adults has taken center stage in many of these discussions. At present, more than 30% of Americans are fully vaccinated, but this number skews heavily toward older people; only 18% of 18- to 29-year olds are vaccinated and this demographic has recently constituted an increasing share of serious coronavirus cases. Further complicating the issue is the fact that many young Americans do not plan to get vaccinated. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that, among respondents under age 35, 36% had no intention of getting a vaccine. Fully in-person colleges and universities, with their high concentrations of young people, are potentially significant coronavirus vectors. Stanford, whose Santa Clara county has been hit hard by the virus, joined the group of 100 colleges in requiring student vaccinations on April 22. In a letter to the Stanford community, Provost Persis Drell announced that all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students must be vaccinated to return to campus in the fall, while acknowledging the need for certain medical or religious exemptions. The university plans to monitor the vaccination landscape for faculty and staff.
Biden’s New Take on North Korea
Along with a host of other issues, Biden has inherited the enduring foreign policy question of how to resolve decades-old tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, estimates that Kim Jong-Un has around 45 nuclear missiles and has the capacity to produce a further six bombs per year. With North Korea’s continued missile tests in the face of international sanctions and condemnation, as well as China’s assistance to the Kim regime in circumventing these sanctions, have led Biden to call for a new approach regarding North Korea. According to Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro, fellow at FSI, Biden’s new strategy should entail gathering an international coalition intentionally excluding China, to deal with North Korea. In doing so, Mastro theorizes that this will avoid tying progress on this issue with broader and more fractious US-China relationship, an approach that in the past has led to failed multilateral agreements with North Korea. In addition, such a strategy would pressure Beijing to stop playing the US and North Korea against each other and instead come down firmly on one side. Regardless of which side Beijing chooses, the diplomatic clarity this would establish will enable the United States and its regional allies to approach resolving this issue in a more informed manner.
And in case you missed it…
Educators must resist a return to ‘normal,’ urges scholar and activist Gloria Ladson-Billing (Spector | Stanford Graduate School of Education)
In uber-rich Silicon Valley, her camera captures those struggling to survive (The Washington Post | Matchan)
Journal retracts anti-mask article falsely claiming Stanford affiliation (Eshan | The Stanford Daily)
Stanford students turn to protests, graffiti to preserve 11 sports programs targeted for cuts (Killian | The San Francisco Chronicle)
About the Authors
Noah Howard ’22 is pursuing majors in Economics and International Relations with a minor in Iranian Studies. Living in Washington D.C., he is currently writing a thesis about the role of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Iranian Politics.
Jackson Vachal ’22 is pursuing majors in Political Science and Philosophy, with a focus on democratic theory. A San Francisco native, he is interested in social entrepreneurship and nonprofit advocacy work.