“We are facing a common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a video conference to launch what the UN agency has described as a “landmark collaboration” to accelerate the development of vaccination and medication for COVID-19.
He stressed that all people across the world, poor and rich, must have equal access to any treatment and vaccine.
“Experience has told us that even when tools are available, they have not been equally available to all. We cannot allow that to happen,” he said.
Leaders from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas participated in the Friday event, but the United States was not involved. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among those who joined the virtual meeting.
Speaking at the conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to an online fund-raising conference scheduled for May 4, saying it aimed to raise 7.5 billion euros (8.10 billion dollars) to step up efforts to find a vaccine and cure for the disease.
“This is a first step only, but more will be needed in the future,” von der Leyen said.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the chairman of the African Union, hailed the WHO’s “excellent stewardship” in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of Washington’s funding to the WHO over what he called the UN body’s “mismanagement” of the new coronavirus pandemic.
During the Friday event, Macron, Merkel, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also voiced their strong support for the agency.
The WHO has been leading the global fight against the pandemic. Its experts have been working to develop vaccination for COVID-19 and issuing guidelines on specific measures to contain the spread of the virus.
The new coronavirus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has so far infected more than 2.7 million people and killed about 190,000, according to a Reuters tally.
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