UNITED States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has described health security as national security.
He said Covid-19 reinforced this.
He spoke at the Covif-19 Global Action Plan Meeting yesterday at the Loy Henderson Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
“Four months ago our countries created the Global Action Plan to try to accelerate our efforts to vaccinate 70 percent of our people against COVID-19, the goal set by the WHO. I think we all knew that hitting that target would take countries stepping up together in a highly coordinated way. So we identified key gaps that remained, we established together six lines of effort to bridge those gaps, and then everyone in this room in effect took responsibility for leading this effort and doing it together,” he said.
He added that cold chain capacity to store and ship more doses of COVID-19 vaccine to more places had been improved.
In-country campaigns to increase demand for vaccines, he said, had been conducted.
‘For example, just to cite a few: Colombia has stepped up its efforts to vaccinate Venezuelan refugees; India has enhanced its vaccine production; Japan has significantly expanded cold chain storage worldwide; Australia, New Zealand are doing great work vaccinating citizens in the Pacific Island nations, just to cite some of the striking examples.
“To that end, one of the things I’m excited to be able to share today is that the United States, in partnership with COVAX, will begin donating pediatric Pfizer vaccines for 5-to-12 year-olds. In fact, the first shipment is going out today: 300,000 doses are being donated to Mongolia; 2.2 million doses are being donated to Nepal. We’ve got many more ready to go for countries that want them.
He called for the building of a stronger, more effective global health architecture to better detect, prevent, respond to future emergencies.
He added: “Looking ahead, the lines of effort that we’re all working, the six lines of effort, remain critical. In many ways this is a marathon. We still have a long way to go if we’re going to end the acute phase of the pandemic and build a lasting foundation for our future.
“To do that, perhaps more than anything else, we have to maintain our commitment. We can’t let the pandemic and pandemic fatigue deplete our political will. And I just want to assure you all that the United States continues to be intently focused on fighting the pandemic and leaving the world better prepared and better defended for whatever comes next.
“This experience, this pandemic, has taught us that health security is national security – and that in this 21st century, health emergencies often can’t be solved by countries working on their own. Viruses don’t respect borders. We are, quite literally, all in this together. And so I’m really grateful to everyone here, to the countries you represent, for this partnership. The progress we’ve made to date has been possible because of your leadership, because of your engagement, because of your willingness to coordinate and collaborate to what I think is a remarkable degree. Now we just need to keep doing it.”
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