Virtual meeting between U.S., Germany, Belize, Indonesia, Senegal aimed at “ending the acute phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, White House says.
QUICK FACTS:
- The White House announced a joint statement on Monday outlining how the U.S., Germany, Belize, Indonesia, and Senegal will host a second global Covid-19 summit in May.
- According to the statement, the summit “will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats,” according to the White House briefing, as it calls on world leaders, members of civil society, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists, and the private sector “to make new commitments and bring solutions to vaccinate the world” in order to “build better health security.”
- The meeting will focus on themes including “Getting shots into arms,” “Deploying tests and treatments,” “Enhancing access to medical countermeasures,” and developing “sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness.”
WHAT ELSE THE BRIEFING SAID:
“The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling COVID-19 worldwide. Together, we can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and protect those at the highest risk with vaccinations, testing, and treatments, actions to minimize disruption to routine health services, and through support for the ACT-Accelerator multilateral mechanism. We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also future health crises. To help achieve these goals, we urge all countries and stakeholders to pledge to take urgent actions to create the systems we need to end the acute phase of COVID-19, save lives, and build better health security and health systems.”
BACKGROUND:
- Joe Biden hosted a similar summit back in September, during which he called on world leaders to meet the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population.
- In March 2021, the World Economic Forum (WEF) called for vaccinating the world in a piece titled “Here’s how we can vaccinate the world against COVID-19,” demanding the implementation of “public-private partnerships” that could “build [vaccine manufacturing] factories around the world.” At the time, the WEF characterized then-current rates of vaccine distribution as “too slow; much too slow” and stated the organization’s desire “to speed the process up, enormously.”
- It was reported today that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by four public-school teachers who said New York City violated their constitutional rights by firing them or putting them on unpaid leave for refusing to get Covid-19 vaccinations, Bloomberg Law reports. The justices did not comment on their rejection of the teachers’ appeal, which challenged the city’s vaccine mandate for its 148,000 employees.
