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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday urged world leaders to unite against the coronavirus pandemic, adding that it has eroded ties between nations.
Johnson, who made the remarks in a prerecorded speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said that, nine months after the pandemic, “the very notion of the international community seems in tatters.”
He also announced a “five-point” plan to address future pandemics in his speech to the UN General Assembly. He also announced new funding for international vaccine efforts and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The prime minister, who required intensive care treatment after contracting the virus in March, has faced criticism at home for his own handling of the crisis.
At the UNGA, Johnson laid out a plan to prevent another global pandemic, including a network of zoonotic research laboratories around the world to identify dangerous pathogens before they pass from animals to humans.
It also pledged 500 million pounds ($ 636 million) through global vaccine procurement group COVAX to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries obtain a coronavirus vaccine, if one is available.
He pledged £ 340 million ($ 433 million, 372 million euros) over the next four years to the WHO, a 30 percent increase.
“Never again must we undertake 193 separate campaigns against the same enemy,” he said.
“Never in the history of our species, since the Almighty brought down the Tower of Babel, has the human race never been obsessed with a single topic of conversation,” Johnson told the Assembly in a virtual speech.
He said the pandemic had “united humanity like never before” but had also been an “extraordinary force of division” as nations competed with each other for the supply of medical equipment.
“After nine months of fighting Covid, the very notion of the international community seems tattered,” he added.
“Unless we unite and turn our fire on our common enemy, we know that everyone will lose.
“Now is the time … for humanity to cross borders and repair these nasty fissures.”
He vowed to use the upcoming British G7 presidency next year to “unite the world after Covid.”
Johnson’s new funding plan has been developed in consultation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the British scientific research charity Wellcome Trust.
It includes a proposal to develop a global network of centers to identify pathogens before they pass from animals to humans.
Other measures include increasing the capacity for treatments and vaccines, improving early warning systems and agreeing to international protocols for health crises.
“There is a moral imperative for humanity to be honest and come to a joint understanding of how the pandemic started, how it could spread,” he said.
“I just believe, as a former Covid patient, that we all have a right to know so that collectively we can do our best to prevent another recurrence.”
Britain hosted a conference in June in which $ 8.8 million was pledged to the global Gavi vaccine alliance to help immunization programs disrupted by the pandemic.
“As great as the need for reform, WHO remains the only body organizing humanity against legions of disease,” he said.
“The pandemic has been an immense psychic shock for the human race.
“We must never again launch 193 different campaigns against the same enemy,” added Johnson, insisting that Britain was “the right country to give that advantage and we will do so in 2021.”
Nearly 42,000 people who tested positive for the virus in Britain have died, and Johnson announced new restrictions this week after a sharp increase in cases.
(with tickets)
