The coronavirus pandemic has lasted for more than a year, with successive epidemiological waves and the emergence of several changes, imposing new challenges on the international community in the face of the health crisis and the economic recovery.
Faced with this complex and critical situation, the Global Health Summit, a high-level multilateral conference on global public health, was held a few days ago.
In a speech on the occasion, titled “United in building a global health community,” Chinese President Xi Jinping presented China’s proposal to promote international solidarity in the fight against the pandemic and announced five measures to support this campaign, indicating concrete ways to overcome the global health crisis as quickly as possible.
First, we must put people and life first. President Xi stressed that, in order to completely defeat the virus, it is essential to put life and health first and genuinely respect the value and dignity of every human life. We must defend the scientific spirit and adopt a founded approach, so that there is coordination between the containment measures and the resumption of socio-economic development. With solidarity and cooperation, the international community must repudiate any attempt to politicize, label or stigmatize this disease.
Second, we must honor the commitment to distribute vaccines fairly and equitably. Last year, President Xi took the lead in proposing that Chinese vaccines become a global public good, in order to contribute to the availability and affordability of the vaccine in developing countries.
True to form, China has already made 300 million doses of the vaccine available to the world, making it the country that has provided the most vaccine, mainly to developing countries.
The safety and effectiveness of Chinese vaccines are widely recognized. Sinopharm’s vaccine has been approved by the WHO for emergency use, while Coronavac is in the process of being approved. In addition, China has joined the Covax program and has pledged to contribute 10 million doses.
China’s concrete actions contrast sharply with the “vaccine nationalism” practiced by some countries and demonstrate China’s spirit of solidarity and responsibility with the international community in difficult times.
Finally, new measures were announced to strengthen solidarity in the global response to the pandemic. President Xi officially announced that China will provide an additional $ 3 billion in international aid over the next three years to support the fight against Covid-19 and economic and social recovery in developing countries. The country will make every effort to make more vaccines available in the world and will support its laboratories in the transfer of technologies to other developing countries and in co-production with these partners.
After announcing its support for the exemption from the protection of intellectual property on vaccines against Covid-19, China is also working so that the WTO and other international institutions can rule on this issue as soon as possible. It also proposes the creation of an international forum on vaccine cooperation, in which countries that develop and produce vaccines, companies and other interested parties can discuss ways to promote the fair and equitable distribution of immunization agents. in the world.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has encouraged, in a humanitarian spirit, partnership with Brazil to jointly face the crisis, taking into account the friendship between our peoples and the importance of our bilateral relations.
The Chinese side donated around R $ 60 million in health supplies to Brazil and helped Brazilians buy 1,200 tons of supplies and equipment from China. More than 20 videoconferences took place between the two parties. In addition, China was the first country to develop a partnership with Brazil in the field of vaccines. Chinese companies are responsible for delivering 90% of the immunization agents and supplies available to Brazil, which has enabled 60% of priority groups to be immunized, a fundamental task in saving more lives.
More than ever, the health crisis shows that humanity shares the same future and is interconnected in happy times as in tragic times. For China, Brazil will remain our priority partner. With unity and partnership, we will work side by side and in harmony with other countries to defend a community of health for all mankind, overcome momentary difficulties, and build a brighter future for human health.