A century ago, an influenza pandemic killed more people than died in World War I. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more Americans than died in all US wars since 1945. A big difference, however, is that science did not have a vaccine for the influenza virus back then, but now several companies and countries have created vaccines for COVID-19.

India’s COVID crisis is a perfect case study in unlearned lessons, poor preparedness, and the continuing threat of the virus even as richer countries climb their way back to full function.

The three countries need to set aside their negative attitudes toward China. It can be done. Even at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and United States cooperated to eradicate smallpox and polio worldwide. The same thing could happen again with today’s plague.

2020 was an unprecedented year for the American business community due to twin pressures from a deteriorating US-China bilateral relationship and the very real human and economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s success at controlling COVID-19 domestically is commendable and has played a large part in ensuring our member companies were largely able to resume regular operations in China by the middle of Q2 of this year. By the year’s end China’s economy had reported GDP growth of 2.3 percent, the only major economy in the world to do so.

Last week, the world marked the 51st Earth Day. This year’s theme – “Restore Our Earth” – was apt. As the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us, the effects of human activity on the planet do not respect borders. The Earth is a single living, self-regulating system, and it demands a single, shared system of accounting that balances at the global level. We need a one-Earth balance sheet.

Kyrgyzstan, a small nation of 6.6 million, has received generous gifts of vaccine packages from the global community, notably a 170K donation from China, yet public distrust and anti-Chinese attitudes have prevented the general population from taking up the offer, revealing deeply-rooted issues Central Asian nations have with their powerful neighbor.

Early in the pandemic, an unexpected outbreak among mink brought catastrophe to Denmark’s vaunted mink fur industry, leading to the extermination of its entire mink population and total collapse of its output. The U.S. and China are among the top contenders looking to capitalize on the sudden vacuum in the market.

The Covid-19 pandemic unleashed opportunistic and nationalistic impulses on the part of countries and biomedical companies, but it also rekindled the global cooperative spirit.

Serbia’s willingness to receive a mountain of Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, as well as Russian and Western doses has made it one of the most well vaccinated countries in the world.

The coronavirus crisis will eventually be a thing of the past, but in the post-COVID era, serious questions remain. What kind of human rights and what international moral standard serves humanity best?