“It’s just a matter of time”

Key world leaders call for a treaty against pandemics. French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the presidents of Rwanda, Costa Rica and Chile, among others, propose “A global agreement”, similar to the one that was forged after World War II to deal with this pandemic and future ones.

“The world needs a global agreement similar to the one formed after World War II to protect states after the coronavirus,” warned Boris Johnson and other world leaders on Tuesday.

In an article published in major world newspapers such as Le Monde, The Daily Telegraph and El País, from Emmanuel Macron to Angela Merkel, they warn that the virus has been “a harsh and painful reminder that no one is safe until everyone is safe.

Following the rise in international tensions over vaccine supply, they call for “an end to isolationism and nationalism” in favor of a new era of solidarity.

The international call for 24 world leaders, with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, was featured in newspapers around the world on Tuesday, including Le Monde in France, El País in Spain and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany.

Like after the second war

The leaders insist that a treaty similar to the agreement reached in the aftermath of World War II is needed to establish cross-border cooperation, before the next international health crisis. They describe the coronavirus as “the biggest challenge for the world community since 1940 ”.

“At that time, after the devastation of two world wars, political leaders came together to forge the multilateral system. The goals were clear: to unite countries, dispel the temptations of isolationism and nationalism, and address challenges that can only be met together in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, namely peace, prosperity, health and Security. They wrote.

End of nationalism

A pandemic treaty “should lead to greater mutual accountability and shared responsibility, transparency and cooperation within the international system and with its rules and regulations,” propose the leaders.

The joint article follows a disagreement between Britain and the EU over vaccine production and distribution. The European Commission has threatened to block shipments to the UK of potentially millions of doses of AstraZeneca from the company’s Halix plant in the Netherlands, following anger in Brussels that the company does not has not been able to deliver so far.

The agreement would eliminate the growing nationalism in this vaccine war between Europe and Great Britain and between rich and poor countries, which are unlikely to be vaccinated, in the face of competition from the great powers and their domestic needs.

Boris Johnson has promoted a new global pandemic deal and will offer it in June to his G7 peers in Cornwall. He believes there must be a better way to share pandemic information amid concerns over China resume information to inspectors, who investigated the origins of the virus and its progression.

Share global responsibilities

The agreement aims to share responsibility for dealing with the crisis, according to European, African, Latin American and Asian leaders who sign the appeal.

“We are committed to guarantee universal access and just to tough, effective and affordable vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, ”they suggest.

“No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat on its own. The question is not whether this will take place but when, ”they argue.

“All together, we must better anticipate the pandemic, prevent it, detect it, evaluate it and react to them effectively in a perfectly coordinated manner. The Covid 19 pandemic has warned us brutally and in pain that there is no security until the world has it, ”they wrote.

“The vaccine is a global public good and we need to be able to develop, manufacture and move vaccines as quickly as possible, ”they suggested.

They promote equal access to tests, treatments and vaccines and support health systems around the world. They offer a global scale of the ACT accelerator in the fight against Covid in the world.

This is why the countries must sign a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness and response. This commitment will be an important step in consolidating pandemic preparedness at the highest political level.

WHO as a base

The Constitution of the World Health Organization must serve as an anchor and will be supported by other organizations to achieve it. help us make things better, ”they said.

The aim of the treaty is to build national, regional and global capacities and resilience in the face of future pandemics.

The treaty will be based on the principle of “A health”, which links the health of humans, animals and our planet. She aspires to mutual accountability and “they will work with the public and private sectors”.

The legacy of the treaty “will be solidarity so that the world is better prepared”. The signatories are joined by Mario Draghi, President of the Italian Council, Antonio Lios Santos da Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Sebastian Piñera, President of Chile, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, among others.

UK and Novavax

On Monday evening, Boris Johnson announced his latest move to ensure the resilience of the UK’s national vaccine supply chains, amid the threat of trade wars.

He announced that the government’s working group on vaccines had reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical giant, to “fill and finish” 60 million doses of the new Novavax vaccine at a plant in Barnard Castle, Co Durham.

This decision eliminates the possibility that Novavax will have to send its sera to Germany to be placed there in vials. Britain wants to invest in its national vaccine manufacturing capacity and end the health dependency that has been a hallmark of this crisis and secure supplies, without the impact of the EU.

El Novavax is already in phase 3 and it will be approved by UK regulators in the coming weeks. The first doses would start in May.

Paris, correspondent

ap