LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for a "new era of global health cooperation" as he prepared to host a vaccine fund-raising summit yesterday under the shadow of the coronavirus.
The virtual meeting aims to raise US$7.4 billion (S$10.4 billion) for immunisation programmes stalled by the pandemic, and will see the launch of a new fund-raising drive to support potential Covid-19 vaccines.
"I hope this summit will be the moment when the world comes together to unite humanity in the fight against disease," Mr Johnson said in a statement.
He added that he hoped it would "inaugurate a new era of global health cooperation, which I believe is now the most essential shared endeavour of our lifetimes".
More than 50 countries were due to take part in yesterday's meeting, as well as individuals such as philanthropist Bill Gates.
The meeting aims to raise funds for Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Over the next five years, Gavi wants to reboot halted programmes and provide vaccines at a much-reduced cost to some 300 million children.
Gavi and its partners will also launch a financing drive to purchase potential Covid-19 vaccines, scale up their production and support delivery to developing nations.
The pandemic has exposed new ruptures in international cooperation, notably with United States President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
But Mr Johnson said helping developing countries would benefit places such as Britain, which has suffered the worst coronavirus death toll in Europe.
"This support for routine immunisations will shore up poorer countries' healthcare systems to deal with (the) coronavirus - and so help to stop the global spread," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"This virus has shown how connected we are. We're fighting an invisible enemy. And no one is safe frankly, until we are all safe."
Mr Gates said pharmaceutical companies had been working together to try and secure the required production capacity.
"It's been amazing, the pharmaceutical companies stepping up to say 'yes, even if our vaccine is not the best, we will make our factories available'," he told BBC Radio 4.
The pandemic has killed nearly 400,000 people since last December, according to an Agence France-Press tally of official sources. It has caused huge economic disruption and the suspension of many routine immunisation services.
WHO, the United Nations' children's agency Unicef and Gavi warned last month that vaccine services were disrupted in nearly 70 countries, affecting some 80 million children under the age of one.
Polio eradication drives were suspended in dozens of countries, while measles vaccination campaigns were put on hold in 27 countries, Unicef said.
Recent Gavi-supported modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that for every coronavirus death prevented by halting vaccination campaigns in Africa, up to 140 people could die from vaccine-preventable diseases.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
