Australia launches the debate about the need to make the vaccine mandatory
"Global Health": Corona research faces a deficit of billions of dollars
Criticism of countries that have individually negotiated with pharmaceutical companies pre-order orders for vaccines that are still in development. EPA
The World Health Organization stated that a United Nations-led initiative to accelerate the development of vaccines and drugs to treat the disease "Covid-19" caused by the Coronavirus is facing a wide financing gap, while Australia launched a debate yesterday about the need for countries to make the future vaccine against the emerging corona virus. Compulsory.
In detail, a spokeswoman for the organization in Geneva told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the project had received pledges of $ 2.5 billion, while the organization estimated that $ 31.3 billion would be needed to fund it over an initial period of 12 months.
The initiative, launched during a donors' conference in Brussels last May, calls for a fair distribution of any future vaccines or drugs to developing and developed countries.
The initiative includes prominent health charities such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jaffe and Faxin Alliance and the British-based Wellcome Trust.
"There are major financing gaps," said Caroline Schmut, who leads Wellcome's Germany office.
She also criticized countries that negotiated unilaterally with pharmaceutical companies for pre-ordering vaccines still under development, including Germany, the United States and Switzerland.
"This could create obstacles to a fair and needs-based distribution of vaccines," Shamut said.
This comes at a time when Australia has launched the debate about the need for countries to make the future vaccine against the virus mandatory, as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told 3AW Radio Melbourne, "There are always exemptions from the vaccine for medical reasons, but it should be the only one." . He added that "getting vaccinated should be mandatory."
On criticism of the anti-vaccine movements, Morrison declared that the challenges are too great to allow the disease to continue to spread in abundance. "We are talking about an epidemic that destroyed the global economy and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the world," he said.
In London, British Health Minister Matt Hancock stated that the government is working to provide tests for Corona virus at airports, a step that would reduce self-isolation requirements upon arrival from abroad.
"If you have test technology that shows results within minutes and not the next day because you don't have to send it to the lab, you can verify that people do not have the virus and are not transmitting it," Hancock told the BBC.
The government's decision to oblige British tourists returning from abroad to self-isolate for a period of two weeks shows the conflict between the government's desire to restore life to normal, and at the same time its fears of high rates of infection with the virus.
The United Kingdom announced last week that the returnees from France are obligated to self-isolate.
However, the minister returned and pointed to a problem, which is that the incubation period for the virus lasts for two weeks, and it may not be possible to monitor it during it, which means the need to repeat the tests to ensure that it does not appear in the following days.
Hancock refused to set a firm deadline for rolling out the tests.
Hancock explained that Britain would not likely follow the example of France in requiring people to wear masks in the workplace, because its examination and monitoring program shows that most of those infected with "Covid-19" have been exposed to the infection at home.
He said, "We are not studying to do this at the present time," in response to a question about whether Britain will impose masks in workplaces, as happened in France.
"The reason is the evidence from the National Health Authority’s program of examination and monitoring that those who contracted the disease were exposed to the infection in most cases during a family gathering or other in a house," he added.
"We believe from the evidence we have that the number of people who have contracted the disease in the workplace is relatively low," he said.
• Britain will not follow the example of France by requiring people to wear masks in the workplace.