With great challenges come great opportunities. Just one year from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists have achieved something truly remarkable: a series of effective vaccines that will eventually inoculate us all.

And what we have learned from the development and rollout of the vaccines — the swift, organised, global cooperation — could be used to address other world problems.

The timeline of COVID-19 vaccine development is impressive. Researchers from around the world worked at breakneck speed to produce at least half a dozen approved vaccines in the space of months. For comparison, the typical time it requires to develop and test a standard vaccine is somewhere between 10 to 15 years.

If unrelenting pressure can produce such miraculous results, then what other crises could be managed by a strong global effort? Could we show the same effort when addressing the threat of climate change? If so, could this mitigate its onset and the worst of its impacts?

The development of the vaccines shows that we we are capable of much more than we usually care to imagine. To address a global crisis with urgency, all that was required was focus, dedication and cooperation on a scale rarely seen. As the vaccines now begin making their way from labs to doctors, we have more lessons to learn.

We must acknowledge our immense ability to provide for others in need. Take the New Zealand-led effort to provide vaccines to the Pacific Islands, including Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. In more recent days, a similar agreement has been struck between the USA, Japan, India and Australia to purchase, manufacture and deliver vaccines to countries in South East Asia.

There is a recognition in such decisions that countries not only can but must lend a hand to those who require it. Yet it is bewildering that the same necessity is so often ignored when the crisis is considered to be less imminent, be it rising tides or providing refuge.

While there are certainly moments during the pandemic to be proud of, it has not always brought out the best in us. Italy blocked a shipment of 250,000 Astrazeneca vials to Australia in early March, as the European Union found itself millions of doses short.

There is sense in this: with Australia almost free of the virus, it is hardly the end of the world if we go a month or two without the shipment, particularly as Italy records more than 20,000 new cases a day and begins to fight yet another wave.

In response Australia's federal government argued that Italy’s decision would only delay efforts to vaccinate Australia’s neighbours, most of whom are in a far more precarious situation than Australians themselves.

It represents another unfortunate reality. Just as wealthy individuals have experienced the impact of the pandemic in very different ways from the poor so, too, are wealthy countries prioritised over poorer ones. A new study suggests 47 of Earth's poorest countries have not administered a single vaccine. A push to remove vaccine patents temporarily would help the developing world receive the critical mass of vaccines they require. Big pharmaceutical companies and the countries they are home to have so far rejected the campaign.

It is a shame to see this kind of greed and self-preservation bubble to the surface in times like these. While the rich have sidestepped the worst of the pandemic for months, it has been the poor who have truly suffered. The virus will hit hardest those people unable to afford treatment for complications, unable to take sick leave, unable to work from home.

I am unsure whether we will emerge from the pandemic as a more empathetic people, or more capable of taking on the next crisis, whether it be climate change or another unforeseen peril. But unless we truly learn from our triumphs as well as our errors, we will be doomed to make the same mistakes. We have all now glimpsed what we can achieve when we work cooperatively and with urgency for a common cause.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 258 April 2021: 3