Bridging the vaccine gap together

On August 5, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi chaired the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation, which was attended by Foreign Minister Felipe Solá , as well as foreign ministers and senior representatives from several countries. 20 countries, heads of various organizations such as the UN and delegates from 29 laboratories in China and other latitudes. In his written message, President Xi Jinping ratified China’s willingness to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccine to the world this year, in addition to donating US $ 100 million to COVAX for vaccine distribution to developing countries. , which demonstrates China’s commitment to reducing the vaccine deficit and giving new impetus to the international response to this health emergency.

China, the first country to share the COVID-19 genetic sequence with the rest of the world, has helped many countries start their respective vaccine R&D. Our country took the lead in the deployment of phase III clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine in Argentina, an action that would be implemented successively in more than 20 countries, which favored the ratification of the use of 4 types of vaccines. Chinese in more than 100 countries. It should be noted that the vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac are on the WHO Emergency Use List and COVAX Acquisition List, an endorsement of their safety and efficacy. China has donated vaccines to more than 100 countries while exporting them to more than 60 countries. In total, it has delivered more than 770 million doses to the rest of the world, ranking number one in the world. As a pioneer of co-production with the developing world, China and other countries have launched the Belt and Road Partnership Initiative for vaccine cooperation, which celebrates the participation of more large number of countries.

In the face of the severe pandemic, hardened by asymmetry in the allocation and inoculation of vaccines, a small number of Western countries, concerned exclusively with their own interests and so-called vaccine nationalism, have imposed political conditions on the provision of vaccines. vaccines, in order to widen the “immunity gap”. Even the US government has ordered the intelligence services to carry out political manipulations linked to the search for the origins of COVID-19, a fact that has only succeeded in showing its concern over the effects of its inept fight against the crisis. health and to undermine your credibility. In short, this immoral attempt to escape its corresponding responsibilities is doomed to failure.

Researching the origins of the novel coronavirus is a serious scientific problem, so no country has the right to ignore life, politicize research, or vilify others based on its own political interests, let alone sharpen the law. harshness to the detriment of the common fight against this health scourge. The joint China-WHO report released on March 30 in Geneva maintains that it is “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 has spread to humans through a Chinese laboratory. In addition, more than 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions presented a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, stressing that the international community must strengthen the joint fight against the coronavirus, urged WHO to trace the origins of the virus objectively and impartially and repudiate politicization. Recently, recognized specialists reiterated, through the magazine Cell, that there is no scientific evidence in favor of the alleged COVID-19 leak from the Chinese laboratory, which has fully exposed the international general opinion, above all, the claims of scientific tracing rather than a political manipulation.

China and Argentina have deepened their cooperation in the fight against this health situation, namely, assistance in the form of anti-epidemic supplies, sharing of clinical experiences, creation of the “air bridge”, joint clinical trials and the provision of vaccines. , which has written a new chapter in the history of bilateral friendship. So far, more than 20 million doses of Chinese vaccines have reached Argentinian soil, which has played an important role in the local response to the epidemic. China will continue to focus on the equitable and reasonable distribution of vaccines and will join efforts with Argentina and other developing countries, in the hope of jointly rejecting “vaccine nationalism” and the politicization of vaccine tracing. virus, both. to promote the accessibility and affordability of this public good for the people of all latitudes of the planet, contributing to the rapid victory of humanity in the face of the pandemic.

* Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Argentina.