The assassination of Haiti's president may worsen its response to COVID-19

The 7 July assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse was the first such killing of a Haitian head of state since 1915. That distant tragedy precipitated the US invasion of Haiti, an occupation that lasted nearly 20 years. Moïse’s murder won’t trigger a similar response, but it could knock off course Haiti’s flailing attempts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consider the reality of Haiti’s situation. The coronavirus pandemic may be receding in the US, but in Haiti, barely a two-hour flight away, the vaccination roll-out has not even begun. Haiti is the only country in the western hemisphere that has not vaccinated a single person against COVID-19. This grim statistic adds yet another doleful data point to what is already the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Having lived in Haiti for three years and reported from there, I know how easy it is to blame Haiti’s state of chronic dysfunction for its lack of a vaccination drive. That is indisputably a factor, but it’s not th…