PARIS, Nov 13, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – European and world leaders on Thursday said
insisted that when Covid-19 vaccines are launched they should be made a
available to everyone, under an international project which still needs $28
billion of funding.
“We aren’t going to beat the virus if we abandon part of humanity,” French
President Emmanuel Macron told the Paris Peace Forum, which seeks concrete
solutions to global issues.
The third edition of the forum is dedicated to finding ways to ease the
pain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The three-day international conference aims to raise more than $500 million
towards ensuring fair access to coronavirus tests, treatment and vaccines for
all, including poor countries.
It takes place as the number of cases is rising rapidly across Europe and
beyond but with hopes rising for the roll-out of a coronavirus vaccine,
perhaps even before the end of the year,
Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci said Thursday the coronavirus
vaccine “cavalry” was on its way, bringing fresh hope as the world registered
more than 10,000 deaths in just 24 hours, a record.
The world-leading expert on infectious diseases said that after this week’s
much-trumpeted news that a vaccine developed by US drug giant Pfizer and
Germany’s BioNTech was 90 percent effective, another is “literally on the
threshold of being announced.”
– ‘Financing gap’ –
During the online Paris forum, several countries are expected to announce
funding for the so-called ACT-Accelerator, a mechanism led by the World
Health Organization that aims to ensure access to tests, treatments and
vaccines for all.
In September, the United Nations estimated that the ACT-Accelerator had
only received around $3 billion of the $38 billion needed to meet the goal of
producing and delivering two billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments
and 500 million diagnostic tests over the next year.
On Thursday World Heath Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
that a ‘financing gap’ of $28.5 billion remains and that $4.5 billion is
urgently required ‘to maintain momentum’.
“The international community must ensure that fair and equitable access to
a vaccine is ensured for everyone,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping exhorted world leaders to “put human life
above everything… and provide a targeted and concerted response” to the
health crisis.
Senegalese President Macky Sall asked for assurances that enough doses of a
virus vaccine would be produced and would reach the poorest countries “which
have the most need”.
Senegal, a poor nation with a population of about 16 million people, has so
far been spared a large coronavirus outbreak.
– Biggest public health effort in history’ –
Day one of the meeting saw France offer 100 million euros, with another 50
million euros pledged by Spain and 100 million euros from the European
Commission.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $70 million, bringing its
total donations to $226 million for the vaccine project.
“We are talking about the largest public health effort in the history of
the world and it won’t be unexpensive,” said Melinda Gates.
The British government is also set to declare a contribution of one
additional pound for each four dollars announced.
Paris Forum members also promised the creation of a high-level expert panel
which would curate all available science concerning the interactions between
humans, animals and changes in the environment.
“The pandemic showed us how much correlation there is between the health of
humans, that of animals, and that of the planet,” German Foreign Minister
Heiko Maas told the forum.
At the finance part of the Peace forum, a group of development banks
pledged to re-focus their investments to take account of climate and
development targets set by the UN and the Paris accord of 2015.
Public development banks invest $2.3 trillion every year, 10 percent of the
world’s total investments.
The banks also promised to promote projects that reduce inequalities,
protect the environment and pursue “sustainable development” goals, without
offering examples.