**Abstract**

We are in the middle of the storm and this does not allow us to see clearly what is coming. This often generates partial analyses of the issues of the situation. Therefore, this manuscript attempts to generate an integral perspective on the issues of the crisis. This chapter proposes a discussion of the Coronavirus crisis following analysis and comparison of the most important outstanding conversations of general public health, economics and environmental issues. The objective of this chapter is to travel on the far side of the discussion of the articles presently planned within the academic world and that were analyzed within the bibliometric review, that consist of these three issues. This analysis that integrates these dimensions allows to give an additional prospective answer to the queries exposed by the COVID crisis, conjointly taking into consideration geopolitics as a forgotten dimension within the public discussion. Our paper helps to indicate the positions of every one of those ideas and enrich the literature on the environmental sciences and public health by providing analysis of the consequences of international policies.

**Keywords:** COVID-19, health, growth, environment, geopolitics and bibliometric analysis

### **1. Introduction**

Governments across the globe are putting into place unprecedented measures of lockdowns and social distancing measures and trillions of dollars in monetary and fiscal policies in the fight against COVID-19. These can only help slow down the spread while medical science works on a vaccine as a way to stop the disease. This is the ultimate solution. Everything else is temporary because of the prevalence of the contagious element and the seasonal peaks [1].

The objective of this chapter is to go beyond the discussion of the articles currently proposed in the academic world and which were analyzed in the bibliometric review, which deal with the issues of health, economics and the environment separately. This analysis that integrates these dimensions allows us to give a more prospective answer to the questions posed by the COVID crisis, also taking into account geopolitics as a forgotten dimension in the analysis.

Government has the vaccine but the question is who gets it first and why. It can be a sad reality in life that sometimes the people that desperately need the vaccine

will not necessarily be the first to receive it. The other issue that arises is who can afford this vaccine because if it is only developed and rich countries that are able to reach this stage [2].

People genuinely believe that the only way to truly contain this, ultimately is the vaccine. That is why we have dozens of companies. Sampling is very important in the race to find an effective vaccine that involves researchers around the world at this point in time. There are over 50 companies looking into developing COVID-19 vaccine. It is quite unprecedented. This is a reflection, not only of the seriousness of the pandemic itself but, the state of science and biomedical science in particular. All around the world, China, Singapore, Europe and the US, there are a whole range of companies from the very traditional big multinational biopharmaceuticals to small biotech companies [3].

Governments and other groups have committed to hundreds of millions for vaccine research but aside from cost there are also questions over affordability and accessibility. It cannot be expensive because this is going to be something the governments will have to pay. This is something that is going to be very challenging which is why there are only a few companies that are pursuing this route [4].

Researchers think that in the case of COVID- 19 that governments are looking at a combined effort from both public and private sectors. The Singapore government has research for a vaccine to cover the country. The companies are working on a product which if successful, could vaccinate many people quickly and at a low cost. Right now the choice is half for manufacturing or vaccine for human trials. The industry is presently working with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in Singapore to identify a time for those for the first clinical trials. That is going to be relatively soon in the US and in China the first clinical trials on humans have already begun, this is just the initial stage in what is usually a long process [5–7].

### **2. Methodology**

The methodology of this chapter considers two parts. We carry out a bibliometric analysis of the literature taking into account three dimensions: sustainability, health care, economic growth in order to provide an analysis related to COVID-19.

**Figure 1** presents the examination of how these three measurements may be reconsidered utilizing the methodology used by Doussoulin [8, 9]. As demonstrated

*The Economic, Climate Change and Public Health Edges of the Geopolitics of COVID-19… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96797*

in **Figure 1**, when π = 100%, z = 0 and w = 0, all consideration devoted by the public authority are allocated to economic development. On the other hand, in the event that π = 0, z = 0 and w = 100%, at that point all consideration is given to medical services. It is additionally conceivable consideration regarding the earth as a characteristic asset which can be addressed where π =0, z = 100% and w = 0, which relates to a green future [1, 10].

In a second part and considering this bibliometric analysis, we will carry out an analysis of the three dimensions in search of characterizing the race for vaccines.
