Author: Cha Daojiong
The fluent Chinese students raised a question in my class discussion: Since China announced that after its new crown vaccine was successfully developed and put into use, it will be provided as a country with demanded countries in the world.In terms of state, it is conducive to cope with the problem of sexuality; then why do you mention the contribution of Chinese contribution?Is the expectation that free of charge is not in line with logic?
Obviously, the two expressions of public products and public products are needed to do some explanations.
During the research and development of the new crown vaccine, the country's priority policy orientation also appeared, and the government of one country proposed to buy out the product of another country's vaccine enterprises in the development stage.The economic and technological investment requirements of vaccine production are extremely high. The production capacity must be based on the premise of quality assurance. The initial shortage is inevitable; the vaccine is a necessary product for the normal social and economic recovery of various countries and the normality of international travel recovery.In this context, the availability of the new crown vaccine has a global challenge.China's announcement shows international responsibility.
The concept of public products in international affairs
An important goal of international cooperation is to provide a common conformity tool for joint challenges.As globalization associates around the world, the difference between their own problems and other people's problems is becoming more and more blurred or disappeared, and common tools have become more and more important.However, the cooperation of finding these symptomatic tools is becoming more and more difficult.For the reason, we might as well start with the collective behavior characteristics of the accompanying students with Public Good.
Public products are the benefit (non -exclusive) of all members of the collective as a collective member, and the consumption of each member (individual or entity) does not lead to a reduction in the consumption of other members (non -athletic).EssenceThis is the original definition of the concept of Paul Samuelson, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970 in 1948.Broadly international cognition.In economics textbooks, a public product cannot depend on market forces, and individuals or groups will not provide.It needs cooperation. After success, public products will benefit all members from it.Public products are generally expected.The other side of the same coin is: Because of its production benefiting from all parties, even if those entities that do not help production (should, can) benefit, public products often have insufficient supply or even unable to provide.Public products are more concepts, such as community or country security, but can also be used to describe the attributes of specific products or services, such as highways and media (the knowledge of communication).
International relations scholars borrow the concept of public products from economists and apply them to the scene of the relationship between the country.These scholars point out that the diffusion of global, international, regional, and multinational public product thinking is the result of thinking about rising issues that have been rising in recent decades, such as climate change, nuclear weapons diffusion, and financial turbulence. Of course, infectious diseases are also included.History shows that there are insufficient public products in these areas, and the same situations (peace, development, etc.) are the same as the traditional field issues that are concerned about the Institute of International Relations.The improvement of each type of public products in various fields has benefited all countries and people; but because it is open, acquired, adequate, compensation that can be obtained from related items can often be matched with the cost of paying.And because not all countries do not contribute to all countries, they lack sufficient political willingness to promote.
At the same time, if each country is stopped because of dissatisfaction, it is obviously not an excellent option.Therefore, we cannot look at all the public products.One type of public products can only make contributions at the same level at the same level, such as seeking peace to avoid war.Another type of public products require a few countries with rich resources to take the lead.The vaccine that can effectively respond to the multinational epidemic virus belongs to this category.There is also a type of self -restraint.For example, consumption of fossil energy is reduced to slow climate change.
Examples of global health public products may include infectious disease control, disease eradication, disease monitoring, drug and medical research results, and best practice, as well as rules and standards related to health.Because the consumption of public products is not excluding, it contrary to the essence of the maximization of the profit pursuit of commercial interests, and the lack of medicine and less medicine cannot automatically stimulate the business community to seek effective right.On the one hand, governments of various countries have the motivation to take measures to provide healthy public products in their own country; on the other hand, there is no global government provided by global government health public products or paying costs.
Vaccine is a product with global public products
It can be seen that public products are a perspective. It focuses on how to promote mutual benefits from the health and health care field between the wealthy and poor countries, rather than providing assistance to the poor.Global healthy public products are also a perspective. It does not prefer to allocate resources on many health issues facing the world or provide a strategy of providing ideas.The important starting point of academic research and policy discussions is that the provision of global health public products must start from the national level.
The new crown vaccine developed by China is a product. It is used abroad and is more complicated than that of sexual and affordability. It is the recognition of product safety.This is not the unilateral responsibility of the vaccine producer.The difficulty of international cooperation in vaccine development and use is because it involves the investment of funds and human resources, all the authorization of intellectual property rights, and the reputation of the country.
The burden of vaccine is not difficult to achieve.The transactions of the vaccine between the country and the country have other organizations related to health and economic and social development between the Children's Foundation under the framework of the United Nations framework between (more) developed countries and (more).Their role is to be an intermediate guarantor: negotiating procurement prices, organizing purchase and storage and transportation, with fund funds as subsidies, thereby selling at low prices or freely presented to demand but unable to develop or in the public vaccine market.nation.These institutions provide income guarantee for production (sales) merchants at the same time.Bilateral assistance is of course one of the ways.
The multinational transaction of vaccines also involves the World Health Organization for pre -examination of vaccines, which is professional recognition and recommendation.For the vaccine producer, this quality (safe and effective) recognition is essential.It plays a role of a quality guarantor between different countries.After all, vaccines are not the same as drugs. Those who accept the vaccine are healthy, and at least have no obvious symptoms.Many countries in the world have many anti -vaccines or social movements that retain their attitudes to vaccination.This is one aspect.On the other hand, the product design of different vaccine producers depends on the scientific path of different scientific paths. The standard for testing the safety and effectiveness of its product is inoculation practice; there is also the motivation to engage in commercial competition.
In summary, China regards the new crown vaccine as a global healthy public product, which is a expression of morality.China's contribution to the availability and payment of the new crown vaccine is a topic in another field, that is, China can consider taking out some funds to form a special aid fund pool with other countries with the same country.To help countries that are unable to pay for the new crown vaccine in the market for a moment of difficulty; there are gifts and sales, but the use of the country must pay and repay the loan.In this way, it is good for the world to get out of the epidemic, but also to maintain the healthy development of the world's vaccine and drug research and development and the production industry chain.
Strictly speaking, the expression of public products is not logically strict.Chinese vaccines are one of the products that promote global healthy public products.The new crown vaccine is urgent in domestic and foreign.But in the global vaccine market, it is just a newly listed product.In the face of global health challenges, choosing cooperation means mutual protection.The internationalization and globalization of the vaccine industry chain are very high, and it is an infrastructure dependent on mutual protection.The overseas use of China's new crown vaccine should not be completely based on the burden of countries with demand.The security of products and national reputation is the cornerstone of stability.
(The author is a professor at the School of Cooperation and Development, the School of International Relations of Peking University)
