The World Health Assembly, which includes the 194 countries that are members of the World Health Organization, began virtual discussions yesterday to discuss the international response to the emerging Corona Virus (Covid-19) epidemic amid "Chinese-American" tension, and accusing the United States of the World Health Organization of "failure", while The organization promised an independent investigation into responding to Covid-19 as soon as appropriate.
The discussions were opened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, by criticizing the countries that ignored the recommendations of the World Health Organization, considering that the world pays today a "high price" for the variance of countries' strategies to deal with the epidemic, adding: "As a result, the virus has spread throughout the world."
In an implicit criticism of the suspension of US allocations to the World Health Organization, Guterres said: "The WHO is indispensable. It needs increasing resources, especially to provide support to developing countries, which should be our greatest concern. He stressed that "protecting developing countries is not a matter of charity or generosity, but an issue of mutual interest."
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanum Gebresus, has promised to launch an independent investigation on responding to the emerging epidemic of Corona virus as soon as possible.
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that his country supports a comprehensive assessment of the global response to the "Covid-19" epidemic after controlling it, and said that China has always had an open, transparent and responsible attitude, and shared information about the virus in its time.
The Chinese president added that any vaccine his country develops against the emerging coronavirus will be in the global public interest, as soon as it begins use, and has pledged $ 2 billion over two years to help respond to the "Covid-19" disease.
Despite the escalation of tension between Washington and Beijing, countries still hope to adopt, today, at the end of the meetings, by consensus a long draft resolution submitted by the European Union, and requests the launch of an evaluation process as soon as possible, to study the global health response and the measures taken by the World Health Organization in the face of the epidemic .
The text also calls on the World Health Organization to work closely with the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and countries, to identify the animal source of the virus, and to determine in what way it is transmitted to humans. The draft resolution also calls for universal, rapid and equitable access to all products needed to respond to the epidemic, and stresses the role of the vaccine against Covid-19 as a public benefit in the world, and to prevent and eliminate the spread of the virus.
A European diplomatic source said: “An informal agreement was reached to adopt the decision by consensus. This will be an important result, because the World Health Organization will be the first global forum to agree on a text unanimously.
The decision will be put to the vote today, and it will be approved if it obtains the support of two-thirds of the association's members.
Yesterday, the United States re-accused the World Health Organization of “failure,” and US Health Secretary Alex Azar said at the organization’s online meeting that a large part of the Corona’s epidemic’s out-of-control control was due to what he called “the organization’s failure to obtain information that The world needed it, and this failure has caused many lives. ” Without at least mentioning China by name, he added: “At least one member state underestimated its transparency obligations in an attempt to hide the epidemic, and that came at a huge cost to the whole world.”
Antonio Guterres:
• "The world pays a high price for the varied state strategies ... and the protection of developing countries is an issue of common interest."
Chinese President:
• "Any vaccine we develop against the Coronavirus will be in the global public interest as soon as it starts to be used."
• Voting today on a draft resolution regards the vaccine against "Covid-19" as a public good for the world.