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Special: Battle against the new coronavirus
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday called for greater international cooperation in fighting COVID-19 and preventing future pandemics, saying “everyone will lose” unless countries come together to defeat the virus.
In a prerecorded speech delivered to the annual general debate of the UN General Assembly in New York, Johnson said: “After nine months of fighting COVID-19, the very notion of the international community seems, frankly, pretty tattered. Know we just can’t go on this way. “
“Unless we act together. Unless we unite and direct our fire against our common enemy, we know that everyone will lose,” he said. “The inevitable result would be to prolong this calamity and increase the risk of another.”
COVID-19 has “united humanity like never before,” he said. “And yet the crisis has also been an extraordinary force for the division.”
Meanwhile, the prime minister described the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the only body organizing humanity against legions of diseases” and announced a 30 percent increase in funding over the next four years, That amounts to 340 million pounds (about 433.33 million US dollars).
Johnson presented a five-point plan to prevent future pandemics, including efforts to forge “a global network of zoonotic research centers” to detect a new pandemic before it begins, to develop manufacturing capacity for treatments and vaccines, to design a global pandemic. early warning system, to have all protocols ready for an emergency response, and finally lift export controls on vital tools such as gloves, protective equipment, thermometers.
The Oxford vaccine is now in stage three of clinical trials and, if successful, AstraZeneca has already started manufacturing millions of doses, preparing for rapid distribution, he said.
Countries like Great Britain, China, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop vaccines against the coronavirus.
“The health of all countries depends on everyone having access to a safe and effective vaccine, wherever a breakthrough occurs, and the UK will do everything in our power to achieve this,” added Johnson.
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