>>New variants are vastly more likely to emerge from outbreaks in unvaccinated populations.

Agreed. But consider the number of unvaccinated people outside of the rich countries (billions) and the number of unvaccinated here (millions) - and then tell me it's more important to get those people who do not want to be vaccinated than it is to focus on the rest of the world. Much better to spend resources on people who do want to be vaccinated - a better chance to bring down the 'virgin' population that will get infected, and thus reduce the likelihood of a more virulent variant.

The best we can do here in the US is to support those medical workers and facilities that are likely to be soon overwhelmed with vaccine refusers. Fortunately, we now know more about how to treat the disease. The downside is that these states have been fighting the ACA and Medicaid expansion - which has directly lead to rural hospitals going broke and closing, which has gotten worse over the last year.

All that said, we have a state nearby (Haiti) in process of failing. The political situation is a mess and there's an unfortunate history of US involvement. We could send vaccines along with the military this time, and not only be more welcome than otherwise, but the thought of "their" vaccines being sent to a "sh*thole country" (orange leader's words) might prompt some of them to get vaccinated just to make helping Haiti more difficult.

These are people who would burn their own houses down if they thought the smoke might make us sick - so getting vaccinated needs to be something they can see as something that would bring liberal tears.

Two birds, one stone.