‘More effort by the major world powers at working together is needed to achieve 70% vaccination of the global community of 7.5 billion people to totally eradicate this public health crisis.’
IN the middle of this month, world leaders issued a call before an informal APEC leaders’ retreat in New Zealand, stressing that the global community should close ranks and unite in fighting the scourge of COVID-19.
With NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hosting, the leaders of China, Russia and the United States delivered their respective countries’ perspectives on the challenges that stand in the way of total victory over the COVID-19 pandemic. They conveyed a serious, singular message: unity through multilateral cooperation in providing both universal access to vaccines and focus on global economic recovery.
President Xi Jinping of China urged unity among all nations and added that China will provide another $3 billion in aid over the next three years to support COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in other developing countries, and it is ready to provide millions more vaccines at “global public goods” cost even after already delivering 550 million doses by this time.
President Joe Biden welcomed his first chance to engage with APEC nations and promised half-a-billion vaccine donations. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said, “In light of the persisting high risks, we believe that our priority is to increase the scale of vaccination. We are ready for close collaboration with our APEC partners in important areas like the organization of large-scale vaccinations.”
More effort by the major world powers at working together is needed to achieve 70% vaccination of the global community of 7.5 billion people to totally eradicate this public health crisis. We are fortunate that modern science and mass production capacities allow mankind to achieve this.
At the same time, the virus investigations must go global and avoid discrimination, tracing the origins to the half-a-dozen countries that have already announced findings of COVID-19 virus infections in 2019 prior to the first discovery in Wuhan. Italy, Spain, France and lately the US have found COVID-19 antibodies in their archived blood samples and municipal wastes of 2019.
The COVID-19 studies and inquiries are too important for humanity not to be left to science, and to be debated by politicians. This has become such an issue with pressure on the WHO that 48 countries have seen it necessary to write to WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus to “stop the politicization of the virus origins probe” and follow only the science.
Finally, but no less vital, is the post-pandemic economic recovery program to restore normalcy in the economic life of nations — restoring the hundreds of millions of jobs that have been lost, recovery of industries and revitalization of trade, resurgence of innovation and commerce. The tasks are daunting but nothing can defeat the human spirit.
