If countries can unite, everyone wins. If not, it will come down to a troubling question: who’s the highest bidder?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to dozens of experts about Covid-19, and there’s clear evidence that the disease does discriminate in a few ways: it kills the old more often than the young, men more often than women, and it disproportionately impacts the poor .

But here’s something I’ve seen no evidence of: Covid-19 discriminating on the basis of nationality. The virus doesn’t care about borders.

I mention this because since the world became aware of the virus early January, governments have focused on their own national responses: how can they protect the people living within their borders? And that’s understandable. But with such an infectious and widespread virus, leaders must also recognise that so long as there is Covid-19 somewhere, it concerns people everywhere.

Covid-19 hasn’t yet hit many low- and middle-income countries hard. We’re not exactly sure why. But what we do know is that the disease will eventually spread widely in these nations, and without more help, the caseloads and death tolls will likely be worse than anything we’ve seen so far.

Consider this: Covid-19 has overwhelmed cities like New York, but the numbers suggest that even a single Manhattan hospital has more intensive-care beds than most African countries. Millions could die.