COVID-19: EU President says 'vaccine nationalism' puts lives at risk

In a State of Union dress on September 16, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vised EU members to form a more powerful health union that promotes closer cooperation as humans worldwide “are still suffering” from vel coronavirus. In her speech at European Parliament Plenary, President Leyen warned that “vaccine nationalism” cant defeat coronavirus that has impacted livelihoods globally.

"ne of us will be safe until all of us are safe— wherever we live, whatever we have," she said, ding, ”Vaccine nationalism puts lives at risk and Vaccine cooperation saves m.”

[European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dresses plenary during her first State of Union speech at European Parliament in Brussels. Credit: AP]

[European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, centre, arrives for a plenary session ahe of her first State of Union speech at European Parliament in Brussels. Credit: AP]

European Commission President me an indirect reference to US President Donald Trump's approach to COVID-19 crisis who h opted out of World Health Organization, abandoning rest of nations. Furr, in her speech, Von der Leyen said she aimed for 37 per cent of 750 billion-euro coronavirus recovery fund approved by EU countries to combat coronavirus pandemic, of which, 30 per cent would be dedicated to “green” bonds spent on environmental objectives.

 Leyen said, "For me, it is crystal clear -- we need to build a stronger European Health Union,” ding, that nations needed crisis preparedness and manment of “cross-border health threats”.

dressing European Parliament in Brussels, European Commission President urged for reinforcement of European Medicines ncy (EMA) and a strengned European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and pledged to form European BARDA— a special ncy for biomedical vanced research and development. She furr called for  EU nations to make contributions in field of health at forthcoming Conference on Future of Europe. She said that re were lessons to be learnt and “a future-proof and properly funded EU4Health programme” was needed to dress COVID-19 crisis worldwide. 

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[European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dresses plenary during her first State of Union speech at European Parliament. Credit: AP]

World needs to "recover toger"

Earlier, in a press conference, World Health Organization (WHO) h criticised nations against vaccine nationalism. UN health ncy's chief Tedros ham Ghebreyesus said during  Aspen Security Forum in United States, “Vaccine nationalism is t good, it will t help us.” He said in a video shot at WHO's hequarters in Geneva, ”For world to recover faster, it has to recover toger because it's a globalised world: ecomies are intertwined. Part of world or a few countries cant be a safe haven and recover."

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