The gap is growing between rich and poor nations on the back of COVID: Ian Bremmer

Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer joins 'Influencers with Andy Serwer' to discuss the fight against COVID-19 and its impact on various nations around the world.

Video transcript

ANDY SERWER: Got to ask you about COVID, where do you think things stand right now in terms of fighting the pandemic and a recovery?

IAN BREMMER: The United States has by far the best position in terms of vaccines. That doesn't mean that we are able to get everyone to take them but still, our vaccines are-- we stockpiled a bunch of them early and they're the most effective, especially in terms of the Delta variant. And I think that makes a big difference and that has helped the United States have a more robust recovery than a lot of other places in the world.

The third-largest port in the world right now in China is partially closed in part because they've got Delta variant and they have zero tolerance for cases so they lock everything down. In part, that's the authoritarian Chinese system and risk aversion but in part, it's because Chinese vaccines really don't work well against Delta and that's what they have. So I mean, you've got a real problem.

Now, I mean, there's no question that we now have higher levels of kids under 17 in hospital with COVID than at any other point since the pandemic started and that's Delta variant, transmissible and problematic for kids in ways that really are bad news for all of us. And we haven't vaccinated those kids yet because we don't even have approval, emergency approval for the youngest. So that's going to slow down schools. There's no question.

There are the huge politics on mask mandates, that's going to slow things down too but ultimately I think the economic rebound in the developed world is going to continue to be very robust. The real problem here is lack of interest and support in getting vaccines out to the poor countries in the world. And that means that they're going to get hit a lot worse economically. The gap between rich and poor nations on the back of COVID is only growing.